skein of mechanical elements. Ask him suddenly to tell the number of days in August and he must begin with "Thirty days hath September" and go to "All the rest have thirtyone," etc.

Every system of mnemonics deals with devices for learning things that are not worth learning. Instead of suggesting means of stimulating intelligence, they propose tricks for stultifying it. Stokes' unwittingly discloses the perniciousness of all such schemes when he says: "It is imperative that a Mnemonical Key should be thoroughly mastered-mark the term ‘Mastered' -I do not say 'understood,' but 'Mastered."" He maintains that a pupil "should have a passive mind and not audibly or mentally ask fifty questions 'as to the why and the wherefore' of what he is required to do." If the whole business of education were to commit words and mechanical forms to memory that they might be rattled off parrot fashion, there would be some value in some of the devices. It is questionable, however, whether a rational understanding would not be a quicker, and certainly a surer, method.

Simple devices that one works out, or rather hits upon in studying analytically, are sometimes valuable, but only because they represent relations which we have established for ourselves. Mnemonic devices, necessitating as they do purely mechanical, single connections, are unreliable and generally useless. They disregard the fact that thought relations are the most vital, multiple, and tenacious. If any mnemonic devices are of any value it is not because of the virtue inherent in the device or system. The concentration of attention upon the material to be mastered, and the working out of relations among the different elements, are what cause the retention. However, if one follows some one else's mnemonics it generally requires more time to learn the devices than it would take to learn the thing itself. Besides, if the borrowed mnemonics are followed the means employed in securing the mnemonics are purely mechanical and generally not worth retaining.

1 On Memory, Ninetieth edition, London, 1866, p. 61.

Arrangement of the Curriculum.-In order to make memories permanent and serviceable, ideas should be considered for long periods of time. That which is perceived but once is speedily forgotten, because obliterated by subsequent associations. But if the idea recurs at intervals-not too long-permanent associations are established. In the arrangement of our curricula in America we have largely disregarded these fundamental laws. Most studies are taken for comparatively brief periods and then give way to others, which in turn are glimpsed panoramically. In most European countries, Germany especially, the studies are so arranged that they are kept before the mind for long periods of time. This idea will be developed more fully in later chapters. The importance of sense perceptions and the means of securing them; the arrangement of subject-matter so as to accord with the laws of apperception; the relation of motor activities in the learning processes; the importance of vivid and accurate imagination; and the organization of elemental acquisitions into the highest thought-products, all have a definite bearing upon memory processes and their training. Their importance is so great that consideration will be given to those phases in separate chapters.

CHAPTER XVI

IMITATION IN RELATION TO EDUCATION

General Illustrations.-All are familiar with the term "imitation" as employed by the popular mind. When one person performs some action because he has observed the same action in others, he is said to imitate. A child observes his father whistling. The child puckers up his lips and tries to do just as his father did. A new girl comes to school. She seems to be a leader and forthwith, as if by contagion, the whole school begin to ape her walk, her speech, her dress, her peculiar pronunciations, her fashion of dressing the hair, in fact all her actions are simulated as nearly as possible. Both of these are well-recognized cases of imitation.

Language has an instinctive basis, but its particular form is wholly due to imitation. That we speak and gesture rather than howl, bark, or neigh, is a matter of instinct; that we speak English, French, or German, rather than Russian, Armenian, or Choctaw, is due to imitation. The English boy drops his h's where we should put them on, or tacks them on where we should suppress them, simply because he lives with others who do so. The New Englander says nevah, rivah, and Jarvar; the Englishman says dog, while a western American says dawg; the Englishman calls a young bovine a cälf, while the ranchman maintains that it is a călf. In one region of the United States every one says bucket; in another, pail. I carry a pocket-book, the New Englander a wallet. The city man goes to church, his country cousin goes to meeting. I attended Sabbath-school when a boy, my children go to Sunday-school. Whether one whistles a tune, a tyune, or a tschune, all depends upon who his neighbors are. Slang phrases, catchy expressions, or popular songs are caught

up by the special circle to which they appeal; they are dinned into everybody's ears, and finally resound from the lips of all who have been made listeners, willing or unwilling. How many of us have felt chagrined on catching ourselves humming some meaningless nickeldom melody, or using the latest slang expressions? Just now we hear on every hand such phrases as "up to you," "up against it," "in the swim," "get busy," etc. Street urchins, loafers, business men, lawyers, doctors, and even preachers and teachers find these emphatic terms coming automatically to their tongues. College students in special sections and at different times have their own peculiar epithets and expressions. In one university, to study is to "dig," in another to "bone," in another to "buck," in another to "plug," in another to "plow." To recite poorly in one place is to “flunk,” in another to "fall through"; to fail is to be "plucked." A good recitation sometimes "knocks the professor's eyes out," at others it "corks him," at others merely "squelches" or "strikes" him. In one university, to fail in examinations is to "bust!"

Manners and customs are products of imitation. Thousands of our every-day matters of etiquette no longer have any reason back of their performance. Though they may have originated in some rational way that has long since disappeared, they are now perpetuated solely through imitation. For example, the people of many nations shake one another's hands on meeting; but those from some countries shake their own hands. Americans and Englishmen say, "How do you do?" the German, "How goes it?" American men lift their hats to a lady; the German is more apt to do so on meeting a man. With Caucasians, black is an emblem of mourning; among Chinese, white performs the same service.

Fashions in dress are created and perpetuated through imitation. Were it not so, scores of hideous, unbecoming, unhygienic fashions could never have been launched. Desirable fashions are maintained in the same manner. There must be leaders who will be aped in all they do, to set the ball rolling. Their

devotees pay homage by immediate adoption. Metropolitan milliners, dressmakers, and tailors know that to insure changes of fashion all they need do is to induce some leader to appear in a new style, and the fashion is launched. This is a usual method of stimulating trade. Psychical laws are the most potent factors in economics. A history of furniture reveals characteristic styles prevailing often for centuries. But within the memory of every adult the styles in furniture have changed at least three distinct times. In dress, at least half a dozen special epochs may be traced through the last quarter-century, besides a semi-annual upheaval in minor matters. One should enjoy his Flemish oak and his Mission patterns as fully as possible to-day, for to-morrow they will be sought out by relic hunters. The sixteenth-century style was reopened to the sunlight for a day at the close of the nineteenth century, and shut away for another cycle to proclaim it the only style worth possessing.

Imitation Among Animals.-Cases of imitation among animals can also be recalled by all. The canary and the mockingbird learn to sing from hearing others of their species; pointers and setters learn their peculiar feats largely from imitation. Monkeys make themselves appear at once intelligent and ludicrous through their powers of mimicry. Of course, many imitative acts are more easily learned than others, because they are also instinctive. Birds would learn to sing without hearing others of their species, but the kind of song depends upon what they hear for copy.

Non-Voluntary Imitation.-Imitation has usually been considered to be a voluntary act; i. e., a conscious and purposive attempt to perform an act observed in another. Preyer, for example, maintains that the child is several months old before it really imitates. The majority of other writers have maintained similar views. But with this interpretation, where are we to place that large range of activities which play such an important rôle in what we call unconscious tuition? Unpurposively, subconsciously, I find myself doing as my associates do. I take