PRÆNOTIO, or PRÆCognitio, is a notice or piece of knowledge preceding some other in respect of time. Such is the knowledge of the antecedent, which must precede that of the conclusion. It is used by Lord Bacon for breaking off an endless search, which he observes to be one of the principal parts of the art of memory. For when one endeavours to call any thing to mind, without some previous notion or perception of what is sought for, the mind exerts itself and strives in an endless manner: but if it hath any short notion before-hand, the infinity of the search is presently cut off, and the mind hunts nearer home, as in an enclosure. Thus verse is easier remembered than prose; because if we stick at any word in a verse, we have a previous notion that it is such a word as must stand in a verse. Hence also, order is a manifest help to memory; for here is a previous notion, that the thing sought for must be agreeable to order. Bacon's Works Abr. vol. i. p. 136. and vol. ii. p. 473.