(4) The pupil must seek analytic words which are approximately specific, as birth-date words must, where possible, relate to birth or juvenile events; marriage-date words, to events connected nearly or remotely with the marriage; date words for any other event in life or fact in history should, directly or indirectly, relate to such event or fact; and, finally, death-date words should refer to incidents which preceded, accompanied, or followed the fact of the death.
This rule, theoretically correct, must be very liberally interpreted in practice. This lesson furnishes numerous illustrative examples.
As shown heretofore, the pupil must know the facts, and the System will then help him to fix their date.
A pupil had loaned money to a horse-dealer who lived at No. 715 of a certain street. He knew the house well, yet he could not recollect the number 715. At length he thought of “Cattle” as a figure word to enable him to remember the number. Yet the word is general and apparently unconnected with the house, as it was not a stable but a boarding-house. Yet, as cattle and horse are species of the genus domestic animal, and cattle would recall horses and horse-dealer, he did right to use that term, and it served him well. At first he instantly recalled the word “cattle” whenever he thought of the horse-dealer’s residence, and at once 715 was given him. After a time, he directly recalled 715 without first thinking of “cattle.” This is always the case where the method is applied. It is soon no longer required in that case. When this pupil told me what he had done, I asked him why he had not used the phrase “(7) Collect (1) The (5) Loan,” which was the object he had in view in thinking of, or of sending to, that address. His reply was that “cattle” served his purpose. With one person a single word, with another a phrase, and with another a sentence, is most serviceable. He had other borrowers who lived at other places. Why could this phrase “Collect the loan,” which would apply in its meaning to the case of others, remind him of this particular debtor’s home? Because, if he had consciously devised that phrase to identify this debtor’s address, it could apply in his mind to the address of no other debtor. Thus the facts help us devise the number phrase, and the phrase helps revive the facts.
I do not, for instance, undertake in this lesson to teach the pupil that Washington never left America but once, when he accompanied his invalid brother to Barbadoes in 1751, in search of health. But if he knows these facts, my method helps him retain the date, by using those facts for this purpose; as, (1) To (7) Gain (5) Island (1) Tonic; or (17)51 Health. We know that “health” is an object with everybody in all countries and in all ages, and is therefore a word of the most general character and of the most extended application. How, then, can it have any special significance in this case? Because by knowing the facts, in the first place, as “health” was the object of the visit of Washington and his brother; and seeking for a date word which spells (17)51, the pupil has discovered that this general word “health” spells that date; and, as the pupil has applied the word “health” to this date and to no other, he has thus made the general word specific for his purpose. Because “tonic” is a health promoter, and “island” is a help to recall the specific Islands of Barbadoes, the phrase (1) “To (7) Gain (5) Island (1) Tonic,” is more specific than “health.” But either the single word or phrase becomes specific, if the facts of the case are assimilated, and then by the pupil are applied to furnish a date word.
BIOGRAPHY, HISTORY, AND SCIENCE.
Much of the substance and pith of historic eras can be expressed in the analytic words, phrases, or sentences with which their dates are enunciated. If the foregoing and subsequent examples are carefully, not hurriedly, studied, the student can readily hereafter retain a great deal of the significance of facts, events, or epochs by his infallible recollection of the analytic expression of their dates. As with history, so with the arts and science, etc.
Population of the United States of America is now (1895) 67,000,000 = General Cultivation or Sharp Yankees. When dealing with the number of millions or thousands only, it is not necessary to express the ciphers. Pop. of Great Britain = 38,000,000, or (3) Mightiest (8) Folks; or Manufacturing Fabrics; or Money-making Freetraders. Pop. of Africa, 127,000,000 = The Negro Continent. Pop. of Bombay = 804,470 or Foreigners as a rule are English Citizens.
A gentleman in Bombay, who had to deal with complaints about water supplies there, told me the true population is 817,564, which he fixed by my method as follows: Frightful To Keep All Just Right.
Pop. of Calcutta = 840,000; or Viceroy’s Residential Seat. Pop. of India = 292,000,000; or India’s Population Enumerated.