132 NOVUM ORGANUM. 



despise and reject any farther union as a point of superfluous 

 refinement, and tending to mere abstraction. 



For instance, let the required nature be memory or that 

 which excites and assists memory. Theconstitutiveinstances 

 are oilier or distribution, which manifestly assists memory ; 

 topics or commonplaces in artificial memory, which may be 

 either places in their literal sense, as a gate, a corner, a 

 window, and the like, or familiar persons and marks, or any 

 thing else (provided it be arranged in a determinate order), 

 as animals, plants, and words, letters, characters, historical 

 persons, and the like ; of which, however, some are more 

 convenient than others. All these common-places ma 

 terially assist memory, and raise it far above its natural 

 strength. Verse too is recollected and learnt more easily 

 than prose. From this group of three instances, order, the 

 common-places of artificial memory, and verses, is consti 

 tuted one species of aid for the memory, which may be well 

 termed a separation from infinity. For when a man strives 

 to recollect or recall any thing to memory, without a pre 

 conceived notion or perception of the object of his search, 

 he inquires about, and labours, and turns from point to 

 point, as if involved in infinity. But if he have any pre 

 conceived notion, this infinity is separated off, and the range 

 of his memory is brought within closer limits. In the three 

 instances given above, the preconceived notion is clear and 

 determined. In the first it must be something that agrees 

 with order ; in the second an image which has some relation 

 or agreement with the fixed common-places ; in the third 

 words which fall into a verse : and thus infinity is divided 

 off. Other instances will offer another species, namely, 

 that whatever brings the intellect into contact with some 

 thing that strikes the sense (the principal point of artificial 

 memory), assists the memory. Others again offer another 

 species, namely, whatever excites an impression by any 

 powerful passion, as fear, wonder, shame, delight, assists 

 the memory. Other instances will afford another species : 

 thus those impressions remain most fixed in the memory 

 which are taken from the mind when clear and least oc 

 cupied by preceding or succeeding notions, such as the 

 things we learn in childhood, or imagine before sleep, and 

 the first time of any circumstance happening. Other in 

 stances afford the following species : namely, that a multi 

 tude of circumstances or handles, assist the memory, such 

 as writing in paragraphs, reading aloud or recitation. Lastly, 

 other instances afford still another species : thus the things 



