JAMES WINNE. 279 



past. The productive imagiaation should belong not 

 only to poets and artists, but to all men, as a faculty of 

 discovering ideals and emancipating us from the im- 

 perfect reality. It should give us a tendency to in- 

 vention and to aspiration. But, under the weight of 

 prescribed forms and the sway of memory, a civilization 

 crushes out self-activity on the part of individuals and 

 imposes the role of external authority upon all. Thus 

 the will of the individual loses freedom, and settles 

 down into passive obedience to custom and prescription. 

 The important question to determine is the proper 

 amount of memory cultivation." 



"The antidote for this baneful effect of memory is to 

 be sought in a method of training that associates effects 

 with causes, and individuals with species ; that asso- 

 ciates one idea with another through its essential re- 

 lations, and not by its accidental properties. One must 

 put thought into the act of memory." 



I would add that : In all systems of mnemonics, so 

 far as I can learn of them, the common device is to 

 associate the items of one province of memory with 

 those of another province of memory. The great sin of 

 these systems is the habit of consciously seeking 

 accidental relations and, consequently, the subversion 

 of the power of logical thought by neglecting essential 

 relations for unessential. 



The true method of cultivating and strengthening a 

 defective memory is to exercise it persistently on the 

 kinds of items that it forgets easily. Thus, and thus 

 only, can we correct the weak faculty and not impose its 

 work upon another faculty. 



At the conclusion of the paper it was discussed by 

 Members Burgess and D wight. 



235 



