§11.2.33haec ratio, ut est illi, de qua primum locutus sum, arti non dissimilis, ita, si quid me experimenta docuerunt, et expeditior et potentior.
This method, as it is not unlike that art of which I spoke first, so, if my experiences have taught me anything, it is both more rapid and more powerful.
ediscere tacite (nam id quoque est quaesitum) erat optimum, si non subirent velut otiosum animum plerumque aliae cogitationes; propter quas excitandus est voce, ut duplici motu iuvetur memoria dicendi et audiendi.
To learn by heart silently (for this has also been asked) would be best, if other thoughts did not usually steal into an idle mind; on account of which the mind must be roused by the voice, so that the memory may be assisted by the double movement of speaking and hearing.
sed haec vox sit modica et magis murmur.
But let this voice be moderate, and rather a murmur.
§11.2.34qui autem legente alio ediscit, in parte tardatur, quod acrior est oculorum quam aurium sensus; in parte iuvari potest, quod, cum semel aut bis audierit, continuo illi memoriam suam experiri licet et cum legente contendere.
But he who learns by heart while another reads is in part delayed, because the sense of the eyes is sharper than that of the ears; in part he can be helped, because, when he has heard it once or twice, he is immediately allowed to test his own memory and to contend with the reader.
nam et alioqui id maxime faciendum est, ut nos subinde temptemus, quia continua lectio et quae magis et quae minus haerent aequaliter transit.
For indeed, in other respects as well, this is what we must do most of all: to test ourselves from time to time, since continuous reading passes over equally both what sticks more and what sticks less.
§11.2.35in experiendo teneasne, et maior intentio est et nihil supervacui temporis perit, quo etiam quae tenemus repeti solent; ita sola, quae exciderunt, retractantur, ut crebra iteratione firmentur, quanquam solent hoc ipso maxime haerere, quod exciderunt.
In testing whether you hold it, there is both greater concentration and no waste of superfluous time, in which even what we hold is accustomed to be repeated; thus only those things which have slipped away are treated again, so that they may be strengthened by frequent repetition, although they are accustomed to stick most of all by this very fact, that they have slipped away.
illud ediscendo scribendoque commune est, utrique plurimum conferre bonam valetudinem, digestum cibum, animum cogitationibus alis liberum.
This is common to learning by heart and to writing, that good health, digested food, and a mind free from other thoughts contribute most to both.
§11.2.36verum et in iis quae scripsimus complectendis multum valent, et in iis quae cogitamus continendis prope solae (excepta, quae potentissima est, exercitatione) divisio et compositio.
But both in grasping what we have written and in retaining what we think, division and composition are of great value, and are almost the only things (except practice, which is most powerful).
nam qui recte diviserit, nunquam poterit in rerum ordine errare.
For he who has divided correctly will never be able to err in the order of things.
§11.2.37certa sunt enim non solum in digerendis quaestionibus, sed etiam in exsequendis, si modo recte dicimus, prima ac secunda et deinceps; cohaeretque omnis rerum copulatio, ut ei nihil neque subtrahi sine manifesto intellectu neque inseri possit.
For certain things are first, second, and so on, not only in arranging questions but also in executing them, if only we speak correctly; and the whole connection of things holds together so that nothing can be subtracted from it without obvious awareness, nor inserted.
§11.2.38an vero Scaevola in lusu duodecim scriptorum, cum prior calculum promovisset essetque victus, dum rus tendit, repetito totius certaminis ordine, quo dato errasset recordatus, rediit ad eum, quocum luserat, isque ita factum esse confessus est? minus idem ordo valebit in oratione, praesertim totus nostro arbitrio constitutus, cum tantum ille valeat alternus?
Did not Scaevola in the game of twelve lines, when he had made the first move and had been defeated, while he was heading to the country, after repeating the order of the whole contest and remembering by making which move he had erred, return to the man with whom he had played, and the latter confessed that it was so? Will that same order be of less value in a speech, especially when it is entirely established at our own pleasure, when that alternating order of the game is of so much value?
§11.2.39etiam quae bene composita erunt, memoriam serie sua ducent.
Even those things which are well composed will lead the memory by their sequence.
nam sicut facilius versus ediscimus quam prosam orationem, ita prosae vincta quam dissoluta.
For just as we learn verses by heart more easily than prose speech, so we learn bound prose more easily than loose.
sic contingit, ut etiam quae ex tempore videbantur effusa, ad verbum repetita reddantur.
Thus it happens that even those things which seemed poured out offhand are reproduced and repeated word for word.
quod meae quoque memoriae mediocritatem sequebatur, si quando interventus aliquorum, qui hunc honorem mererentur, iterare declamationis partem coegisset.
This also followed the mediocrity of my own memory, if ever the arrival of some people who deserved this honor forced me to repeat a part of my declamation.
nec est mendacio locus, salvis qui interfuerunt.
Nor is there room for falsehood, as long as those who were present are safe and sound.
§11.2.40si quis tamen unam maximamque a me artem memoriae quaerat, exercitatio est et labor; multa ediscere, multa cogitare, et si fieri potest cotidie, potentissimum est.
Yet if anyone should seek from me the one and greatest art of memory, it is practice and labor; to learn much by heart, to think much, and if possible daily, is most powerful.
nihil aeque vel augetur cura vel negligentia intercidit.
Nothing is equally either increased by care or lost by negligence.
§11.2.41quare et pueri statim, ut praecepi, quam plurima ediscant, et, quaecunque aetas operam iuvandae studio memoriae dabit, devoret initio taedium illud et scripta et lecta saepius revolvendi et quasi eundem cibum remandendi.
Therefore, let boys also immediately, as I have prescribed, learn as many things as possible by heart; and whatever age will give its effort to the study of helping the memory, let it at the beginning devour that tediousness of turning over written and read things rather often, and, as it were, chewing the same food again.
quod ipsum hoc fieri potest levius, si pauca primum et quae odium non adferant coeperimus ediscere, tum cotidie adiicere singulos versus, quorum accessio labori sensum incrementi non adferat, in summam ad infinitum usque perveniat, et poetica prius, tum oratorum, novissime etiam solutiora numeris et magis ab usu dicendi remota, qualia sunt iurisconsultorum.
This very thing can be made lighter if we begin to learn by heart a few things at first and those which do not bring disgust, then daily add single verses, the addition of which does not bring a sense of increase to the labor, and in total arrives at last even at infinity; and first poetic works, then those of orators, and lastly even those freer from rhythm and more remote from the practice of speaking, such as the writings of lawyers.