but more so, the caprices of fate, have brought us to grapple with in a hurry. We confess to have learned but little; convinced, however, at the same time, by numerous experiments upon ourselves and others, that, but for this method, we would have remained at least ten times still more ignorant.
Besides the empyrical and intricate manner in which mnemonics have hitherto been treated, we cannot help pointing to another reason of their being neglected; a reason which must suggest itself even to the least suspicious.
We have seen that mnemonics have been recommended and studied by the greatest authorities of antiquity, and found zealots almost in every age; and we are not aware of any one having fairly contradicted their usefulness as a means of accelerating the acquisition of knowledge. How is it, then, that such a valuable article is not brought into the market? How is it that the want of it is not felt—nay, the very name of it unknown? And all this in England, in 1841. If we cannot approve, much less can we blame those who might suspect some other very simple but unfair reasons of this anomaly. It is often the case, that those who have already got through their hard studentship are not the gladdest to see a new power brought into the market, which they suspect, or perhaps they have learned but lately, to be of a nature to shorten the school-period of the new-comers: they feel not quite comfortable at seeing the chance of their younger rivals soon matching or even leaving them behind.
Those who are most generous, or most interested to see this art expounded, are not always in a position to make their opinions prevail; and the ignorant, the lazy, and, above all, the envious, are always ready for the "cry down."
