Excerpt from Mnemonics, or the New Science of Artificial Memory: Explained in Its Application to the Study of Numbers, the Sciences, And to the Useful Occupations of Life, Whereby the Natural Memory Is Greatly Assisted and StrengthenedSimonides was employed by Scopas, a rich Thessalian, to compose a panegyric on him for a certain sum of money, was invited to a festival, given by Scopas to his friends, in order to rehearse it, but was sordidly refused more than half the stipulated compensation, because, puzzled, perhaps, with the sterility of the principal subject, he had introduced a long episode, amounting to half the poem, in praise of Castor and Pollux. Simonides soon found an avenger of the insult. He was immediately summoned from the com pany, by two 01mg men on horseback, supposed to be Castor and Po lux m disguise, who appeared to protect their favourite oet, and who, as soon as they had Simonides, ma e the roof fall on scopas and his com pan bruising them so to death that not a lineament of t em could be known. Simonides, by recollecting the manner in which they sat at table, was enabled to dis tinguish them, and to deliver them to their friends for hu rial. The aid which the recollection of the poet received on this occasion, is said to have suggested the idea of an artificial memory.About the PublisherForgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.comThis book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully, any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.