244 ADVANCEMENT OF LEARNING 



CHAPTER V 



Division of the Retentive Art into the Aids of the Memory and the Nature 



of the Memory itself. Division of the Doctrine of Memory 



into Prenotion and Emblem 



WE DIVIDE the art of memory, or the keeping and 

 retaining of knowledge, into two parts; viz., the 

 doctrine of helps for the memory, and the doc 

 trine of the memory itself. The help for the memory is 

 writing; and we must observe, that the memory, without 

 this assistance, is unequal to things of length and accuracy, 

 and ought not otherwise to be trusted. And this holds par 

 ticularly in inductive philosophy, and in the interpretation 

 of nature; for one might as well undertake to make an 

 almanac by the memory, without writing, as to interpret 

 nature by bare contemplation. Scarce anything can be 

 more useful in the ancient and popular sciences than a true 

 and solid help for the memory, that is, a just and learned 

 digest of commonplaces. Some, indeed, condemn this 

 method as prejudicial to erudition, hindering the course 

 of reading, and rendering the memory indolent; but as it 

 is a wrong procedure in the sciences to be over-hasty and 

 quick, we judge it is of great service in studies, unless a 

 man be solid, and completely instructed, to bestow dili 

 gence and labor in setting down commonplaces; as it affords 

 matter to invention, and collects and strengthens the judg 

 ment. But among all the methods and commonplace books 

 we have hitherto seen, there is not one of value; 1 as savor 

 ing of the school rather than the world, and using rather 

 vulgar and pedantical divisions than such as any way pene 

 trate things. 



1 Upon the subject of commonplace, consult Morhof s &quot;Polyhistor, * torn. 

 i. lib. i. cap. 21, de Locorum Comrnunium Scriptoribus ; Mr. Locke s common 

 place, in his &quot;Discourse of the Conduct of the Understanding&quot;; and Julian s 

 &quot;Emploi du Temps.&quot; Shaw. 



