Page:Memory; how to develop, train, and use it - Atkinson - 1919.djvu/50

44 is the better.” The systems founded upon this idea may be employed to repeat a long string of disconnected words, and similar things, but have but little practical value, notwithstanding the high prices charged for them. They serve merely as curiosities, or methods of performing “tricks” to amuse one’s friends. Dr. Kothe, a German teacher, about the middle of the nineteenth century founded this last school of memory training, his ideas serving as the foundation for many teachers of high-priced “systems” or “secret methods” since that time. The above description of Feinagle gives the key to the principle employed. The working of the principle is accomplished by the employment of “intermediates” or “correlatives” as they are called; for instance, the words “chimney” and “leaf” would be connected as follows:

“Chimney—smoke—wood—tree—Leaf.”

Then there are systems or methods based on the old principle of the “Figure Alphabet,” in which one is taught to remember dates by associating them with letters or words. For instance, one of the teachers of