well worth the labor
of mastering, and if the directions are implicitly followed there can be
no doubt that the memory will be greatly strengthened and improved, and
that the mnemonic feats otherwise impossible may be easily performed.
Loisette, however, is not an inventor, but an introducer. He stands in
the same relation to Dr. Pick that the retail dealer holds to the
manufacturer: the one produced the article, the other brings it to the
public. Even this statement is not quite fair to Loisette, for he has
brought much practical common sense to bear upon Pick's system, and, in
preparing the new art of mnemonics for the market, in many ways he has
made it his own.

If each man would reflect upon the method by which he himself remembers
things, he would find his hand upon the key of the whole mystery. For
instance, I was once trying to remember the word "Blythe." There
occurred to my mind the words "Bellman," "Belle," and the verse:

"---- the peasant upward climbing
Hears the bells of Buloss chiming."

"Barcarole," "Barrack," and so on, until finally the word "Blythe"
presented itself with a strange insistence, long after I had ceased
trying to recall it.

On another occasion, when trying to recall the name "Richardson," I got
the words "hay-rick," "Robertson," "Randallstown," and finally
"wealthy," from which, naturally, I got "rich" and "Richardson" almost
in a breath.

Still another example: Trying to recall the name of an old schoolmate,
"Grady," I got "Brady," "grave," "gaseous," "gastronome," "gracious,"
and I finally abandoned the attempt, simply saying to myself that it
began with a "G," and there was an "a" sound after it. The next morning
when thinking of something entirely different, this name "Grady" came up
in my mind with as much distinctness as though someone had whispered it
in my ear. This remembering was done without any conscious effort on my
part, and was evidently the result of the exertion made the day before
when the mnemonic processes were put to work. Every reader must have had
a similar experience which he can recall, and which will fall in line
with the examples given.

It follows, then, that when we endeavor, without the aid of any system,
to recall a forgotten fact or name, our memory presents to us words of
similar sound or meaning in its journey toward the goal to which we have
started it. This goes to show that our ideas are arranged in groups in
whatever secret cavity or rec