In 1894, a author writing under the pseudonym A. Loisette made a bold promise: that anyone could train their mind to attend and never forget. What emerges is a fascinating window into Victorian-era cognitive science, a time when psychologists were just beginning to map the machinery of memory. Loisette rejects simple rote repetition, arguing instead that true remembering requires active, deliberate thought from the very first moment of encounter. He breaks memory into two stages, first impressions and their revival, and offers what he calls the "three laws of thinking": inclusion, exclusion, and concurrence. These frameworks sound almost algorithmic, but they're really about training habits of observation and mental linkage. The prose has that charming Victorian certainty, where self-improvement feels not just possible but almost sacred. It's not a modern neuroscience book in disguise; it's a product of its time, with all the earnestness and naivety that entails. But for readers curious about how our great-grandparents thought about thinking, or anyone who wants a time capsule of Victorian optimism about the limitless mind, this remains a strange and surprisingly moving artifact.
