But after a time a certain limit is reached which most minds cannot transgress.  VOLAPUK was easy so long as, like Pidgin-English, it contained only a few hundred words and no grammar.  But now that it has a dictionary of 4,000 terms and a complete grammar it is as hard to learn as Spanish.  It invariably comes to pass in learning to remember by the Associative method that after a time images are referred to images, and these to others again, so that they form entire categories in which the most vigorous mind gets lost.

The other method is that of direct Memory guided by Will, in which no regard is paid to Association, especially in the beginning.  Thus to remember anything, or rather to learn how to do so, we take something which is very easy to retain—­the easier the better—­be it a jingling nursery rhyme, a proverb, or a text.  Let this be learned to perfection, backwards and forwards, or by permutation of words, and repeated the next day.  Note that the repetition or reviewing is of more importance than aught else.

On the second day add another proverb or verse to the preceding, and so on, day by day, always reviewing and never learning another syllable until you are sure that you perfectly or most familiarly retain all which you have memorized.  The result will be, if you persevere, that before long you will begin to find it easier to remember anything.  This is markedly the case as regards the practice of reviewing, which is invariably hard at first, but which becomes ere long habitual and then easy.

I cannot impress it too vividly on the mind of the reader, that he cannot make his exercises too easy.  If he finds that ten lines a day are too much, let him reduce them to five, or two, or one, or even a single word, but learn that, and persevere.  When the memory begins to improve under this process, the tasks may, of course, be gradually increased.

An uncle of the present Khedive of Egypt told me that when he was learning English, he at first committed to memory fifty words a day, but soon felt himself compelled to very much reduce the number in order to permanently remember what he acquired.  One should never overdrive a willing horse.

Where there is a teacher with youthful pupils, he can greatly aid the process of mere memorizing, by explaining the text, putting questions as to its meaning, or otherwise awaking an interest in it.  After a time the pupils may proceed to verbal memorizing, which consists of having the text simply read or repeated to them.  In this way, after a year or eighteen months of practice, most people can actually remember a sermon or lecture, word for word.

This was the process which was discovered, I may say simultaneously, by DAVID KAY and myself, as our books upon it appeared at almost the same time.  But since then I have modified my plan, and made it infinitely easier, and far more valuable, as will be apparent to all, by the application of the principles laid down in this book.  For while, according to the original views, Memory depended on Will and Perseverance, there was no method indicated by any writer how these were to be created, nor was energetic Forethought considered as amounting to more than mere Intention.