CONTENTS:

Training the Senses.

Sensation and Perception.

Proper Use of the Senses.

Training the Sight.

Training the Ear.

Sound.

Spelling.

Co-ordination.

Essay Writing.

Correlation.

Importance of Training the Senses.

If you have conscientiously studied the first lesson-paper, and tried to put its precepts into practice by observing things more closely, so as to see all their differences and agreements with other things, you will probably have discovered

• that there is a certain amount of difficulty about the process;
• that it seems to strain the attention;
• that the harder you look at a thing the more difficult it appears to be to see all of it.

Perhaps you have studied a certain face, hoping to remember it next time you saw it, and have been disappointed on meeting the person under different conditions, perhaps differently dressed, or with a hat on, to find that you did not recognize the face after all.

In many cases where you have tried to fix things upon your memory, you have felt that you would like to have a second look. You are conscious that there is some point that you did not notice; there is some peculiarity about the thing before you, and you are not quite sure whether it was in the original or not.

You feel that you did not look long enough or carefully enough at the thing you wanted to recollect. These difficulties are entirely due to the untrained conditions of your powers of observation.

We have seen, in the first lesson, what knowledge is. We have seen the process which goes on in our minds in acquiring this knowledge.  We have seen that in order to understand what a chair is we must understand all its differences and agreements with other things.

But these were the extremes of the process. Between the idea which we wished to understand and the mind with which we wished to understand it, there is a distinct space which must be bridged over by some means of communication.

The mind must be acted upon by the material universe around us, and we must be able in turn to direct our minds to certain parts of this material universe at will.

The Means by which Knowledge reaches us.

The means of communication is through the senses. They are the channel through which all knowledge passes from the outside world to our inner consciousness, and the greater part of this knowledge comes through sight and hearing.

If you stop to think of the matter for a moment, you must realize the truth of the principle laid down by Helmholtz, that apprehension by the senses supplies, directly or indirectly, the material of all human knowledge and the stimulus necessary to develop every inborn faculty of the mind.

As Dugald Stewart points out, the powers of understanding would forever lie dormant were it not for the action of external things on the bodily frame:—for the perception of the senses. Bain tells us that all knowledge is limited to our sensibilities.

If all knowledge depends upon the senses, then all memory must depend upon them also.

The differences and agreements which were dealt with in the first lesson were largely examples presented to the mind through the sense of sight; but, in order to have an all-round memory, you must be able to compare sounds, smells, feelings and flavours.

The senses help one another in a great many ways, and many of the comparisons which are necessary to complete knowledge and, therefore, perfect memory, would be impossible if we had to rely upon one sense alone.

After you have carefully examined a coin which you are doubtful about, and find that it has all the appearance of being genuine, you ring it on a table to hear how it sounds, and you compare that sound with your recollection of the true ring.

When you examine a piece of cloth to see if it is wool, you do not trust to your sight alone, but you run your fingers along the edge in order to compare it with your recollection of the peculiar feeling of pure wool.

The milk which you have just poured into your coffee looks as if it were sour. You taste it, and it seems all right when mixed with the coffee. Then you smell the milk itself to be quite sure. In this case you have called upon the memory of three different senses to compare the milk before you with your standard recollection of fresh milk, in its appearance, its smell, and its taste.

Sensation and Perception.

Now, thousands of things are forced upon the attention of the mind which are not of the slightest interest or importance to it. As long as you are awake, you cannot help being conscious of sights, sounds and smells about which you care nothing.

One of the most marvellous powers of the mind is its ability to select from this mass of sensations those which it wants, and, by the power of attention, to shut out those which would otherwise only disturb it.

The cultivation of this attention, or the directing power of the will, is a most important factor in training the memory. When this will-power is weak we call it mind wandering, a disease which will honeycomb and destroy any memory, if it is not taken in hand and cured in time.

In studying this mass of material which is continually being forced upon our attention, it is important that the pupil should clearly understand the difference between a sensation and a perception.

Both are transmitted through the medium of the senses, but a sensation is the action of something upon the mind, while a perception is the action of the mind upon the thing perceived.

You go into a room, and you are conscious of a pleasant odour. This is simply a sensation. You see a bunch of flowers upon the table, and you judge that the odour proceeds from it. That is perception. In the first case the mind is passive; in the second it is active.

It is for purposes of perception that the senses must be trained, because perception implies the directing power of the mind, which is generally known as inhibition.

But it is impossible to train the senses together; each must be taken separately, and the method of securing this separate and individual training of the senses is an important point in laying the foundation for a good memory.