turned accurately enough, but without discrimination. As Mr. Business Man recalls the directors' meeting, the scene as a whole comes clearly before him, then some certain incident connected with the chairman, next the chairman's fishing party followed by his own thrilling capture of a black bass, until finally, Mr. Business Man finds himself mind-wandering far from his original starting point.

To recall completely all one has ever experienced would require as many years as this experience originally occupied. Abbreviation and condensation are absolutely necessary; the four hours directors' meeting can with profit be boiled down possibly to four minutes, and as for the black bass-none of it for the business day! The essentials only are wanted, and all else which presents itself should be repressed as irrelevant.

3. Repeat the Recall Frequently

The rather common way of memorizing is to repeat again and again the impression. Drill, drill, drill! It is felt that memorizing should precede thinking, for logically ought we not store the mind with the necessary raw materials before trying to reflect upon them? "The most important part of every Musselman's training," says Ratzel, "is to learn the Koran, by which must be understood learning it by heart, for it would be wrong to wish to understand the Koran till one knew it by heart."

This process is extremely wasteful. It emphasizes impressions, whereas what is desired is ability to recall. One recall is worth a dozen impressions.

The correct procedure is first to stamp the mind with a clear impression, then to repeat not the impression but the recall. In this way one develops a wonderful set of grappling hooks, prompt and accurate in bringing to the surface what is wanted.

4. Seek Out Clues Persistently

In not a few cases, however, when one seeks to recall a memory image, no response is secured; the image apparently is lost. Again, it trembles on the threshold, but does not come forth. What can be done in such cases?

Mere blind persistence has a value, just as the man of the house, in looking for a pack of cards may go from room to room turning things up-side-down, and perhaps after a time, come upon said pack in a table drawer. But all this means hard work, hence, as Seashore points out, if the memory image is not at command so soon as sought we all too readily conclude that we cannot reach it.

The old injunction of try, try again has much merit here. But not planless trying, no mere stolid turning over of stones. The object sought is not lost in some isolated crevice of the mind, but has connected itself with some other object, which in turn becomes available as a clue. Seek connections systematically. Go through the mind in the manner of Sherlock Holmes.

RULES OF RECOGNITION

1. Recognize with Vividness

After recall comes recognition. The image desired has risen from the mental recesses, and is now at command. Shall one think, "Yes, this is right," in a dry sort of way, and then think no more?

Scarcely! Our friend comes to mind not as two mere words, "John Smith," a colorless image, but as some one with brown eyes, wavy hair, cheviot suit, walking stick, and so on, not forgetting the cheery smile. He is a real flesh and blood person.

The image, abundant in detail and intense in its recall, enables its possessor to relive the scene as in the original; it makes recognition realistic and tangible.

2. Express the Recognition Appropriately

In the most subtle way, mind and body are knit together. Every thought tends to express itself in action, every action tends to influence thought.

The staid executive who in telling football stories some Sunday afternoon for the benefit of his boys, crouches on the rug as he illustrates the fierceness of his tackling just in front of Old Eli's goal, does more than carry his listeners with him. He makes the story real to himself. He is reliving the scene, with all its appropriate actions.

Most of our mental furnishings, in fact, were gained through action of some sort, be it even so prosaic as walking or smiling; and the recognition of these ideas stored in memory gains in vividness as these same actions accompany the recall.

3. (Trust Your Memory

)

But perhaps after all the idea recognized is the wrong one; are we not possibly being tricked? Questions such as this once raised are so hard to down that not a few persons are always uneasy with the lurking suspicion that their memory is playing them false.

What stores clerk bent on filling his requisitions with accuracy and dispatch would improve, if continually suspected, questioned, and accused? Would not this miasma of doubt finally break down his moral fiber, make him in reality the inaccurate, hopeless, incompetent he was suspected of being?

Just so with the memory. Doubt clogs its action, confidence inspires it to better service. Do not therefore be anxious, for your memory under good treatment will serve you well.

4. Forget the Useless

The memory, however trustworthy it may be, deals with the past. But the efficient man lives in the present, and

looks forward to the future. Let the dead past bury its dead. What cares he for it save as it aids him now and serves as a guide to the future.

The memory, accordingly, must be selective. While holding tenaciously those items which are worth holding, it must nevertheless refuse to thumb over in the files day after day the transactions long since closed. Such useless accumulations, dead timber, should be allowed to float gently out upon the stream of thought into oblivion. A good memory and a good "forgettery" are firm allies.

Few persons have the resolution to do this. Like the hermit of the story books, always collecting but never throwing anything away, the majority run the risk of guarding with jealous care a junk heap. Yet such watchful guarding, besides being wasteful, is unnecessary because the idea forgotten still serves us.

We are the sum total of all our yesterdays, and even the idea lost beyond recall has had its influence in making us what we are. "Although the ready memory is a great blessing to its possessor," says William James, "the vaguer memory of a subject, of having had to do with it, of its neighborhood, and of where we may go to recover it again, constitutes in most men and women the chief fruit of their education." This chief fruit is not lost through the admonition, “keep the mental decks cleared for action.”

But the mind in parting with its useless material does experience a feeling of relief, and its energy freed from the task of watchful waiting can deal with the needs of today. In getting through the day's work and the year's work, forgetting is as important as remembering.

Summary of Rules

The rules of memory culture will now be summarized, that the leader more readily may make them his own. (See Figare 13.)