1. To what must we correlate a person's name? 2. What will be the result if we memorise the correlation? 3. To what do Mnemonists resort to remember proper names? 4. Does this _alone_ give a starting point? 5. What is a similarity of sound alone likely to do?
[Dr. Johnson, when introduced to a stranger repeated his name several times aloud and sometimes _spelled_ it. This produced a vivid first impression of the man's _name_; but it did not _connect_ the name to the man who bore it. People who have adopted the Johnsonian Method sometimes remember the name but apply it to the wrong person, because they did not establish any relation between the name and the man to whom it belonged.]
Make 20 of your own Correlations between faces and names (or between words and meanings), using some of the extremes given by me, and, as other extremes (words, &c., of your own selection, or) names and faces of your own acquaintances.
_Peculiarity._ _Correlation._ _Proper Names._
Cross-eyed Cross-bow ... bowman Mr. Archer Wavy hair dancing wave ... Morris dance Mr. Morrison Black eyes white ... snow ... pure as snow Mr. Virtue Retreating chin retiring ... home-bird Mr. Holmes High instep high boots ... mud ... peat Mr. Peat Crooked legs broken legs ... crushed Mr. Crushton Apprehension suspension ... gallows Mr. Galloway Sombre sad ... mourning ... hat-band Mr. Hatton Music stave ... bar Mr. Barcroft Violinist violin ... high note ... whistle Mr. Birtwistle Painter paint ... colored cards ... whist Mr. Hoyle Plumber plum-pudding ... victuals Mr. Whittles Joiner wood ... ash Mr. Ashworth
1. Is it ever possible to remember two extremes without thinking of the intermediates? 2. In what cases? 3. What did Dr. Johnson sometimes do when introduced to a stranger? 4. What sometimes occurs with people who have adopted the Johnsonian Method? 5. Why is this? 6. As Max Müller names mental acts in this order: Sensation, Perception, Conception, Naming, and Memory, would he hold that failure to remember names implies weakness of naming power? No! Remembering a name is an act wholly unlike imposing a name in the first instance. Such failure arises from weakness of the auditory function, or of the perception of individual peculiarities or failure of the sight-image to become cemented to the sound image.