Here you will learn How to develop, train and use your memory
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CHAPTER XII.
HOW TO REMEMBER FACES.
The memory of faces is closely connected with the memory of names, and yet the
two are not always associated, for there are many people who easily remember
faces, and yet forget names, and vice versa. In some ways, however, the memory
of faces is a necessary precedent for the recollection of the names of people.
For unless we recall the face, we are unable to make the necessary association
with the name of the person. We have given a number of instances of face-memory,
in our chapter on name-memory, in which are given instances of the wonderful
memory of celebrated individuals who acquired a knowledge and memory of the
thousands of citizens of a town, or city, or the soldiers of an army. In this
chapter, however, we shall pay attention only to the subject of the recollection
of the features of persons, irrespective of their names. This faculty is
possessed by all persons, but in varying degrees. Those in whom it is well
developed seem to recognize the faces of persons whom they have met years
before, and to associate them with the circumstances in which they last met
them, even where the name escapes the memory. Others seem to forget a face the
moment it passes from view, and fail to recognize the same persons whom they met
only a few hours before, much to their mortification and chagrin.
Detectives, newspaper reporters, and others who come in contact with many
people, usually have this faculty largely developed, for it becomes a necessity
of their work, and their interest and attention is rendered active thereby.
Public men often have this faculty largely developed by reason of the
necessities of their life. It is said that James G. Blaine never forgot the face
of anyone whom he had met and conversed with a few moments. This faculty
rendered him very popular in political life. In this respect he resembled Henry
Clay, who was noted for his memory of faces. It is related of Clay that he once
paid a visit of a few hours to a small town in Mississippi, on an electioneering
tour. Amidst the throng surrounding him was an old man, with one eye missing.
The old fellow pressed forward crying out that he was sure that Henry Clay
would remember him. Clay took a sharp look at him and said: "I met you in
Kentucky many years ago, did I not?" "Yes," replied the man. "Did you lose your
eye since then?" asked Clay. "Yes, several years after," replied the old man. "
Turn your face side-ways, so that I can see your profile," said Clay. The man
did so. Then Clay smiled, triumphantly, saying: "I've got you nowweren't you on
that jury in the Innes case at Frankfort, that I tried in the United States
Court over twenty years ago?" "Yes siree!" said the man, "I knowed that ye know
me, 'n I told 'em you would." And the crowd gave a whoop, and Clay knew that he
was safe in that town and county.
Vidocq, the celebrated French detective, is said to have never forgotten a face
of a criminal whom he had once seen. A celebrated instance of this power on his
part is that of the case of Delafranche the forger who escaped from prison and
dwelt in foreign lands for over twenty years. After that time he returned to
Paris feeling secure from detection, having become bald, losing an eye, and
having his nose badly mutilated. Moreover he disguised himself and wore a beard,
in order to still further evade detection. One day Vidocq met him on the
street, and recognized him at once, his arrest and return to prison following.
Instances of this kind could be multiplied indefinitely, but the student will
have had a sufficient acquaintance with persons who possess this faculty
developed to a large degree, so that further illustration is scarcely necessary.
The way to develop this phase of memory is akin to that urged in the development
of other phasesthe cultivation of interest, and the bestowal of attention.
Faces as a whole are not apt to prove interesting. It is only by analyzing and
classifying them that the study begins to grow of interest to us. The study of a
good elementary work on physiognomy is recommended to those wishing to develop
the faculty of remembering faces, for in such a work the student is led to
notice the different kinds of noses, ears, eyes, chins, foreheads, etc., such
notice and recognition tending to induce an interest in the subject of features.
A rudimentary course of study in drawing faces, particularly in profile, will
also tend to make one "take notice" and will awaken interest. If you are
required to draw a nose, particularly from memory, you will be apt to give to it
your interested attention. The matter of interest is vital. If you were shown a
man and told that the next time you met and recognized him he would hand you
over $500, you would be very apt to study his face carefully, and to recognize
him later on; whereas the same man if introduced casually as a "Mr. Jones,"
would arouse no interest and the chances of recognition would be slim.
Halleck says: Every time we enter a street car we see different types of people,
and there is a great deal to be noticed about each type. Every human
countenance shows its past history to one who knows how to look. . . .
Successful gamblers often become so expert in noticing the slightest change of
an opponent's facial expression that they will estimate the strength of his hand
by the involuntary signs which appear in the face and which are frequently
checked the instant they appear.''
Of all classes, perhaps artists are more apt to form a clear cut image of the
features of persons whom they meetparticularly if they are portrait painters.
There are instances of celebrated portrait painters who were able to execute a
good portrait after having once carefully studied the face of the sitter, their
memory enabling them to visualize the features at will. Some celebrated teachers
of drawing have instructed their scholars to take a sharp hasty glance at a
nose, an eye, an ear, or chin, and then to so clearly visualize it that they
could draw it perfectly. It is all a matter of interest, attention, and
practice. Sir Francis Galton cites the instance of a French teacher who trained
his pupils so thoroughly in this direction that after a few months' practice
they had no difficulty in summoning images at will; in holding them steady; and
in drawing them correctly. He says of the faculty of visualization thus used: "A
faculty that is of importance in all technical and artistic occupations, that
gives accuracy to our perceptions, and justice to our generalizations, is
starved by lazy disuse, instead of being cultivated judiciously in such a "way
as will, on the whole, bring the best return. I believe that a serious study of
the best means of developing and utilizing this faculty, without prejudice to
the practice of abstract thought in symbols, is one of the many pressing
desiderata in the yet unformed science of education."
Fuller relates the method of a celebrated painter, which method has been since
taught by many teachers of both drawing and memory. He relates it as follows: "
The celebrated painter Leonardo da Vinci invented a most ingenious method for
identifying faces, and by it is said to have been able to reproduce from memory
any face that he had once carefully scrutinized. He drew all the possible forms
of the nose, mouth, chin, eyes, ears and forehead, numbered them 1, 2, 3, 4,
etc., and committed them thoroughly to memory; then, whenever he saw a face that
he wished to draw or paint from memory, he noted in his mind that it was chin
4, eyes 2, nose 5, ears 6,or whatever the combinations might beand by retaining
the analysis in his memory he could reconstruct the face at any time." We
could scarcely ask the student to attempt so complicated a system, and yet a
modification of it would prove useful. That is, if you would begin to form a
classification of several kind of noses, say about seven, the well-known Roman,
Jewish, Grecian, giving you the general classes, in connection with straight,
crooked, pug and all the other varieties, you would soon recognize noses when
you saw them. And the same with mouths, a few classes being found to cover the
majority of cases. But of all the features, the eye is the most expressive, and
the one most easily remembered, when clearly noticed. Detectives rely much upon
the expression of the eye. If you ever fully catch the expression of a
person's eye, you will be very apt to recognize it thereafter. Therefore
concentrate on eyes in studying faces.
A good plan in developing this faculty is to visualize the faces of persons you
have met during the day, in the evening. Try to develop the faculty of
visualizing the features of those whom yon knowthis will start you off right.
Draw them in your mindsee them with your mind's eye, until you can visualize
the features of very old friends; then do the same with acquaintances, and so
on, until you are able to visualize the features of every one you "know." Then
start on to add to your list by recalling in the imagination, the features of
strangers whom you meet. By a little practice of this kind you will develop a
great interest in faces and your memory of them, and the power to recall them
will increase rapidly. The secret is to study faces to be interested in them. In
this way you add zest to the task, and make a pleasure of a drudgery. The study
of photographs is also a great aid in this workbut study them in detail, not as
a whole. If you can arouse sufficient interest in features and faces, you will
have no trouble in remembering and recalling them. The two things go
together.
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