repetition.  That is the method of logical association, by which one links up a new fact with something already in the mind.  If, for example, you wish to remember the date of the World’s Fair in Chicago, you might proceed as follows:  Ask yourself, What did the Fair commemorate?  The discovery of America in 1492, the four hundredth anniversary occurring in 1892.  The Fair could not be made ready in that year, however, so was postponed a year.  Such a process of memorizing the date is less laborious than the method of rote memory, and is usually more likely to lead to ready recall.  The old fact already in mind acts as a magnet which at some later time may call up other facts that had once been associated with it.  You can easily see that this new fact might have been associated with several old facts, thus securing more chances of being called up.  From this it may be inferred that the more facts you have in your mind about a subject the more chances you have of retaining new facts.  It is sometimes thought that if a person stores so much in his memory it will soon be so full that he cannot memorize any more.  This is a false notion, involving a conception of the brain as a hopper into which impressions are poured until it runs over.  On the contrary, it should be regarded as an interlacing of fibers with infinite possibilities of inter-connection, and no one ever exhausts the number of associations that can be made.

The method of logical association may be employed with telling effect in the study of foreign languages.  When you meet a new word scrutinize it carefully for some trace of a word already familiar to you either in that language or in another.  This independent discovery of meanings is a very great aid in saving time and in fixing the meaning of new words.  Opportunities for this method are especially frequent in the German language, since so many German words are formed by compounding other words.  “Rathausmarkt” is a long and apparently difficult German word, and one’s first temptation is to look it up in the lexicon and promptly forget it.  Let us analyze it, however, and we shall see that it is only a compound of already familiar words. “Rat” is already familiar as the word for counsel ("raten" to give advice); “haus” is equally familiar.  So we see that the first part of the word means council-house; the council-house of a city is called a city hall. “Markt” is equally familiar as market-square, so the significance of the entire word stands, city-hall-square.  By such a method of utilizing facts already known, you may make yourself much more independent of the lexicon and may make your memory for foreign words much more tenacious.

We approach a phase of impression the importance of which is often unsuspected; namely, the intention with which memorizing is done.  The fidelity of memory is greatly affected by the intention.  If, at the time of impression, you intend to retain only until the time of recall, the material tends to slip away after that time.  If, however, you impress with the intention to retain permanently the material stays by you better.  Students make a great mistake when they study for the purpose merely of retaining until after examination time.  Intend to retain facts permanently, and there will be greater likelihood of their permanence.