Mncmonlca, or new Method of assisting the Memory. Q3 



k-tter from a literary gentleman, at present in Paris, to Lis 

 fiieiid in London. 



" P:irij, Cd March 1807. 



"During mv resitl-jnce in this metropolis .! heard a great 

 tieal of a new method or mncvijuique, or ot' i -nethod lo 

 assist and fix our meniory, invented bv Gregor de Feinaiglc'o 

 Notwithstanding the simplicilv with which he annoiraccd 

 his lectures in the papers, I eoii'd not determine iiivseii to 

 become a pupil of liis, as I thought to fiiul a quack or 

 mountebank, and to be laughed at by mv fne!;ds for having:, 

 thrown away my cash in such a I'oolish manner. Perhaps i 

 should hesitate to this moment about the utilitv of this new 

 invented method to assist our natural memory, had I not 

 had the pleasure of dining at his excellency's the Count of 

 Metternich, the Austrian ambassador, who followed, with ail 

 his secretaries, the whole course of lectures : they all spoke 

 very advantageously of it, likewise several other persons 

 of the first rank I met there; in consequence of this I 

 was inserted into the list of pupils, and I follow, at this 

 moment, the lec-tures. All I can tell you about this me- 

 thod is : it is a very simple one, and easy to be learned, 

 ad:'.pted to all ages and sexes : all difficulties in such sciences 

 as require an extraordinary good memory, for instance, the 

 names and epochs in history, are at once overcome and 

 obviated. There is not one branch of science to which this 

 riKthod cannot be applied. It is easy to be perceived that 

 such an invention cannot pass without some ciitique, and 

 even sarcasms, in the pr.blic prints: some of them were very 

 Injurious, and plausible enough to mislead the public, who, 

 knowingnothing of the method, arc always more ready tocon'^ 

 tlenin than to assist. Mr. Feinaiglc, to answer all these critics 

 at once, adopted a method not less public for Paris than 

 ihe public papers, but less public for the rest of Europe: hi» 

 gave, the 2-2d of last month, a public exhibition to about 

 t'OOO spectators, in which he did not appear at all, only 

 about V'ior 13 of his pupils : each of them made sueii an ap-- 

 plication (if the method as his situation in life required. The 

 principal parts werp the following: history about names and 

 \ears ; geocraphy, wiih res[)cct to longitude, latitude, 



number 



