"To briefly show its use, suppose it is desired to fix 1,142 feet in a
second as the velocity of sound, t, t, r, n, are the letters and order
required. Fill up with vowels forming a phrase like 'tight run' and
connect it by some such flight of the imagination as that if a man tried
to keep up with the velocity of sound, he would have a 'tight run.'"

[Sidenote: _Scientific Pedagogy_]

The same principle is at the basis of all efficient pedagogy. The
competent teacher endeavors by some association of ideas to link every
new fact with those facts which the pupil already has acquired.

In the pursuit of this method the teacher will "compare all that is far
off and foreign to something that is near home, making the unknown plain
by the example of the known, and connecting all the instruction with the
personal experience of the pupil--if the teacher is to explain the
distance of the sun from the earth, let him ask, 'If anyone there in the
sun fired off a cannon straight at you, what should you do?' 'Get out of
the way,' would be the answer. 'No need of that,' the teacher might
reply; 'you may quietly go to sleep in your room and get up again; you
may wait till your confirmation day, you may learn a trade, and grow as
old as I am--_then only_ will the cannon-ball be getting near, _then_
you may jump to one side! See, so great as that is the sun's distance!'"

We shall now show you how to apply this principle in improving your
memory and in making a more complete use of your really vast store of
knowledge.