Names Suggest Familiar Faces
Many names immediately suggest familiar faces, which you can name any time, anywhere. You often compare the strangers you meet with them and note the similarities. Constant repetition has fixed these faces so thoroughly in mind that there will be no confusion in naming them. You pass a stranger on the street and some one says: "How much that man looks like Lincoln," and you reply, "Yes, but Lincoln was taller and did not have such large eyes, and his nose was entirely different in shape. And Lincoln's mouth was fuller, too, not so thin and straight." This comparison is possible, because of the clear, definite picture which has been formed in your mind of President Lincoln.
These familiar faces which you can recall so definitely in your mind's eye will be of wonderful assistance in remembering strangers by the same name. Practice with this picture as Mr. Grant. His face may be strange to you, but the name immediately suggests a familiar face. Now see these two faces in the same picture, see the familiar face looking over the face of the stranger, see them meeting, shaking hands, talking, laughing. Exaggerated, moving, unusual pictures are best. See the familiar faces clearly as possible, and compare the two; one is tall and the other short, one dark the other light, one has a beard and the other has not, etc. All comparison helps to make the mind's eye picture more definite and to strengthen the associated picture through prolonged attention.