Text: Edgar Allan Poe (?), Literary, Broadway Journal (New York), April 12, 1845, vol. 1, no. 15, p. ???-???

[page 226, column 2, continued:]

PHRENO-MNEMOTECHNY; OR THE ART OF MEMORY: The series of Lectures explanatory of the Principles of the System, delivered in New York and Philadelphia, in the beginning of 1844, by Francis Fauvel-Gouraud, D. E. S., of the University of France. Now first published without Alterations or Omissions and with Considerable Additions in the Practical Application of the System. New York and London; Wiley & Putnam.

This is a large and handsome octavo of some 700 pages. As yet we have not fully read the work, and are of course unable to speak of it with decision. Its subject is certainly an important one; and if the views of M. Gouraud be carried out, they must lead to magnificent results. That his theory (we use the word in its widest sense) has been vigorously opposed, is by no means a proof of any defect in the theory itself — on the contrary it is a proof it is worthy at least very serious examination — although to be sure, it is merely a non distributio medii thence to infer that all vituperated books are meritorious. We confess, however, that in our rapid survey of M. Gouraud's system, we became impressed with a sense of his philosophical ability; and one thing is certain that his volume, if only for the amount of well-digested and various information it embodies, is worth double the sum demanded for it. We shall speak of it more fully hereafter.