It is good so far as it goes; but it does not go very far.
The reason is that there is a limit to the powers of the memory,
especially in the observation of arbitrary combinations of letters.
What habits of visualization would enable the ordinary person to
glance at such a combination as the following and write it ten minutes
afterward with no aid but the single glance: _hwgufhtbizwskoplmne?_
It would require some minutes' study to memorize such a combination,
because there is nothing to aid us but the sheer succession of forms.
The memory works by association. We build up a vast structure of
knowledge, and each new fact or form must be as securely attached
to this as the new wing of a building; and the more points at which
attachment can be formed the more easily is the addition made.
The Mastery of Irregular Words.
Here, then, we have the real reason for a long study of principles,
analogies, and classifications. They help us to remember.
If I come to the word _colonnade_ in reading, I observe at once that
the double _n_ is an irregularity. It catches my eye immediately.
"Ah!" I reflect almost in the fraction of a second as I read in
continuous flow, "here is another of those exceptions.
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