Repetition is a powerful aid to memory.  Thurlow Weed, the journalist and political leader, was troubled because he so easily forgot the names of persons he met from day to day.  He corrected the weakness, relates Professor William James, by forming the habit of attending carefully to names he had heard during the day and then repeating them to his wife every evening.  Doubtless Mrs. Weed was heroically longsuffering, but the device worked admirably.

After reading a passage you would remember, close the book, reflect, and repeat the contents—­aloud, if possible.

Reading thoughtfully aloud has been found by many to be a helpful memory practise.

Write what you wish to remember. This is simply one more way of increasing the number and the strength of your mental impressions by utilizing all your avenues of impression.  It will help to fix a speech in your mind if you speak it aloud, listen to it, write it out, and look at it intently.  You have then impressed it on your mind by means of vocal, auditory, muscular and visual impressions.

Some folk have peculiarly distinct auditory memories; they are able to recall things heard much better than things seen.  Others have the visual memory; they are best able to recall sight-impressions.  As you recall a walk you have taken, are you able to remember better the sights or the sounds?  Find out what kinds of impressions your memory retains best, and use them the most.  To fix an idea in mind, use every possible kind of impression.

Daily habit is a great memory cultivator.  Learn a lesson from the Marathon runner.  Regular exercise, though never so little daily, will strengthen your memory in a surprising measure.  Try to describe in detail the dress, looks and manner of the people you pass on the street.  Observe the room you are in, close your eyes, and describe its contents.  View closely the landscape, and write out a detailed description of it.  How much did you miss?  Notice the contents of the show windows on the street; how many features are you able to recall?  Continual practise in this feat may develop in you as remarkable proficiency as it did in Robert Houdin and his son.

The daily memorizing of a beautiful passage in literature will not only lend strength to the memory, but will store the mind with gems for quotation.  But whether by little or much add daily to your memory power by practise.

Memorize out of doors. The buoyancy of the wood, the shore, or the stormy night on deserted streets may freshen your mind as it does the minds of countless others.

Lastly, cast out fear.  Tell yourself that you can and will and do remember.  By pure exercise of selfism assert your mastery.  Be obsessed with the fear of forgetting and you cannot remember.  Practise the reverse.  Throw aside your manuscript crutches—­you may tumble once or twice, but what matters that, for you are going to learn to walk and leap and run.