SO M E M 
which time he numbered among his pupils fome or the 
highefl characters in the country. 
The foundation of the fyftem, like that of the ancients, 
being locality and aftbciation, but more extensively and 
advantageoufly applied than it was by them, M. Feinaigle 
begins, with great policy, by expofing the defeCts and 
difficulties in their divifion of a room ; which rendered 
a complex calculation necellary, before the Situation of 
any given number could be found. On each of the four 
walls of a room, they would reprefent in their minds the 
letter M, to the five points of which they would attach 
numbers in regular order; thus making one room con¬ 
tain twenty numbers, on which twenty different matters 
to be remembered could be fixed. This matter they car¬ 
ried through as many rooms as they required; and, when 
they wifhed to recall an objeCt, they referred to the num¬ 
ber of the point of M on which it had been placed: but 
this was a troublefome procefs ; becaufe, fuppofing that 
the number required was 48, it was necellary, in the firft 
place, to divide that number by 20, in order to find the 
room in which it occurred, and the next number to the 
quotient was that of the room ; thus, 2 is the quotient, 
and 3 is the number of the room; the remainder, 8, was 
then to be divided by 5, to find the Jidc of the room; 
and here again the quotient, 1, is not the anfwer, for it 
muft be on the ad fide; and then the number left, 3, was 
the place on that fide. The complexity of this method 
affords a linking contrafi in favour of that which is 
adopted by M. Feinaigle; in whole fyftem the fituation 
of the place, on which the objedl to be remembered is 
fixed, is f'een in the number itfelf: thus, the number 48 
is on the fourth fide of the room, arid on the eighth place 
on that fide. This facility is occafioned by a judicious 
:ufe of the magical number 9. By drawing two perpen- 
•dicular and two horizontal lines, every fide of a room is 
■made to contain nine (equal divifions, or lquares. Thele 
djvifions, on each wall, are numbered from 1 to 9. The 
four walls make the decimal figures from 10 to 40, and 
the order of them .is thus arranged: The pupil, Handing 
with his back to the.windows, counts from the left to 
the right as in ordinary reading; the firfi wall is thus on 
his left hand; the feeond, before him; the third, on his 
right hand; and the fourth is behind him. The num¬ 
bers then on the firfl wall are from 11 to 19; thofe on 
the. feeond, from 21 to 29 ; thole on the third, from 31 to 
39 ; and thofe on the fourth, from 41 to 49. The figures 
jo, 20, 30, 40, which give the titles to the fides, are 
placed on the ceiling over their relpedlive walls. The 
floor, by being divided in the fame manner as the walls, 
gives the firft nine figures, and the centre of the ceiling 
is numbered 50. One room is thus made to contain a 
regular feries of numbers from 1 to 50; the places of 
.each of which, being permanently fi#ed, it is impofiible 
to miftake; the correfponding fquare on each wall having 
.the lame unit attached to it, and the wall itfelf defignating 
the Jen. Thele numbers can be carried to any extent 
through other rooms. The profeflor lhortly exemplifies 
the ufe of thefe divifions, by Flowing the great facility 
.with which a numher of perceptible obiedls may be re¬ 
membered by fixing their locality, and connediing them 
together, or with lome other objedl already on the place. 
Our readers will be convinced of the truth of this fadl 
by a fingle trial of the method. Common experience and 
obfervation prove that the memory altogether depends 
©n the order in which fubjedts to be remembered are im- 
prefl'ed on the mind. A fimple artificial locality has al¬ 
ways, therefore, been a definable objedl, as of the greatell 
importance in this nefpedl; and, fence the idea was firft 
practically fuggefted by Simonides, who delivered the 
disfigured friends of Scopas to their relatives for inter¬ 
ment, by remembering the order in which they fat at the 
fealt, every mnemonift has endeavoured to form an un¬ 
complicated arrangement of places, which has been ef¬ 
fected by the ingenuity of the prefent profeflor. 
Although, however, we .are .enabled to remember 
O II \ r . ! • 
ftriking and ludicrous objects by placing them in order 
on the fquares, we (hall find that the fixing of numbers, 
which cannot be reprefented but by the figures them- 
felves, will not receive any affiftance by this arrangement. 
Neithercan letters be fo remembered; and there would ap¬ 
pear a difficulty in fixing the following letters in their or¬ 
der on the mind: F. N. G. L. S. N. W. R. T. F. M. M. R. 
but, as icon as thefe letters are made J'enj'e by the intro¬ 
duction of vowels, and it is found that they compofe the 
words Feinaigle'$ New Art of Memory, the difficulty dis¬ 
appears, and the confonants muft then of neceffety be re¬ 
peated in their order. Thus, likewife, by changing the 
figures into confonants, and forming words by the addi¬ 
tion of vowels, and by placing thele words, which lhould 
be the names of fenfible objects, in the order before de- 
feribed, any number of figures may be remembered with 
the greatell readinefs. All the confonants are, accord¬ 
ingly, divided among the figures, and the vowels are en¬ 
tirely omitted. In Dr. Grey’s fyftem, figures are alfo 
exprefied by letters: but he ufes the vowels and confo¬ 
nants indiferiminately, having one of each to reprefent 
each figure. The words which he compounds from them 
have no meaning whatever, but are fuppoled to be re¬ 
membered by being formed into a fort of nonfenfe-verfe, 
compofed of various words, the firft fyllables of which 
are the fuljcCls, and the remainder are the dates that 
apply to them. As thefe lines, however, from their total 
want of fenfe, muft require much lludy and frequent 
repetition to fix them on the memory, it appears to us 
that no more exertion would be neceffary to enable the 
fludent to remember the dates themfelves without refort- 
ing to fuch a method. No fetch difficulty is found in M, 
Von Feinaigle’s lyftem; in which, by the exclulion of the 
vowels as reprefentatives of the figures, the pupil has 
only to form a word, (exprefling a fenfible objedl,) the 
confonants in which give the date that he requires. 
The application of the art to chronology is perfedllys 
fimple and eafy. A feries of kings, &c. with the years 
in which they began to reign, may be fo ftrongly fixed 
on the mind in a quarter of an hour, that nothing can 
obliterate the impreffeon. This is done by converting 
the name of the king into fome perceptible objedl; the 
defignation of which is fo fimilar to the fovereign’s name 
in found, that it cannot fail to be recognized; as willow 
for William, hen for Henry, &c. The letters compoiing 
the date are then formed into a word, which the learner 
connedls with the objedt into which the name of the king 
is changed ; fo lining fome fanciful picture of the whole, 
to be placed on the fquare which anlwers to the num¬ 
ber in the feries. The feeond and other kings of the 
fame name (if there be more than one) are ihown by 
placing two or more of the objects by which the firft was 
reprefented ; as three willows for William III. or eight hens 
for Henry VIII. The reprefentation for this purpofe, and 
throughout the whole of the fyftem, muft be fuch as can 
be painted, or feen “ in the mind’s eye;” and it will be 
found that the more ludicrous and uncommon the affo- 
ciation is, the more ftrong will be the jmpreftion on the 
mind. We will attempt to explain an example. The fifth 
king of England after the Conquelt was Henry II. who 
began to reign in the year 1154. This is reprefented by 
two hens and a taylor. The confonants in the latter word 
defignate the figures 154, the preceding thouland being 
underftood in all; and the two hens are the fymbols, as 
before explained, of Henry II. Thefe are connedled by 
fome ludicrous aflociation, which of couri'e will ftrike 
each learner differently, and the whole picture is placed 
on the fifth fquare of the room, thus fhowing the num¬ 
ber in the feries of the kings. If, therefore, the date of 
Henry II’s reign be afked, the fludent immediately looks 
to the fquare on which he has placed the two hens , and 
the whole anfwer is feen at one view; the remembrance 
of any part of the combination calling to mind the re¬ 
mainder of the pidture. 
This method, with a perfect knowledge of the room in 
. which 
