The Massachusetts spy, and Worcester County advertiser. [volume] ([Worcester, Mass.]) 1825-1831, 1830-01-20
SINGULAR EFFECT OF MEMORY

SINGULAR EFFECT OF MEMORY.
The following anecdote from the Biography
OF Coleridge is very remarkable fact, ant
made to illustrate very striking theory
F." case occurred in a catholic town il
Germany, year or two before my arrival a
Gottengen, and had not then ceased to be
frequent subject of conversation. A young
woman OF four or five and twenty, who could
neither read or write, was seized with &
nervous fever; during which, according tc
the asseverations of all the priests and
monks of the neighborhood, she became pos
SeSSed, and as it appeared, by very learne
devil. She continued necessarily talkino
Latin, Greek and Hebrew, in very pompous
tones, and with most distinct enunciation
The case had attracted the particular at.
'ention OF young physician, and, by his
statement. many eminent Psychologists and
psychologists visited the town, and cross
examined the case on the spot. Sheets full
OF her rawlings were taken down from her
own mouth, and were found to consist oil
sentences coherent and Ineligible each for
itself, but with little or no connexion with
each other. Of the Hebrew, a small pro-
portion only could be traced to the Bible
the remainder seemed to be rabbinical dia-
lect. All trick or conspiracy was out of the
question. Not only had the young woman
ever been harmless, simple creature, but
she was evidently laboring under nervous
fever. In the town in which she had been
resident for many years, as a servant in
dinerent families, no solution presented it.
self. The young physician, however, deter
mined to trace her past life step by step
Tor the patient herself was incapable of re-
turning rational answer. He, at length,
succeeded in discovering the place where
her parents had lived; travelled thither.
found them dead, but an uncle surviving :
and from him learnt, that the patient had
been charitably taken by an old protestant
pastor at nine years old, and remained with
MN some years, even till the old mans
death. Of this pastor the uncle knew no.
tnng, but that he was very good man.
with great difficulty, and after much search,
our medical philosopher discovered niece
OF the pastors who had lived with him as
housekeeper, and had inherited his effects.
she remembered the girl; related that her
venerable uncle had been too indulgent, and
could not bear to hear.the girl scolded; that
she was willing to have kept her, but that,
after her patrons death, the girl herself re-
fused to stay. Anxious inquiries were then,
OF course, made concerning the PASTORS
habits, and the solution of the phenomenon
was soon obtained. For it appeared, that it
had been the old mans custom for wears, to
walk up and down a passage of his house.
into which the kitchen door opened, and
read to himself with loud voice, out of his
tavorte books. A considerable number of
these were still in the niece's possession.
She added that he was a learned man. and
a great Hebraist. Among the books were
fonnd collection of rabbnical writings. to-
gether with several of the Greek and Latin
fathers; and the physician succeeded in
Identifying so many passages with those
taken down at the young woman's bedside,
that no doubt could remain in any rational
mind, concerning the true origin of the i'm
pressions made on her nervous system.
This authentical case furnishes both proof
and instance, that relics of sensation may
exist, for an indefinite time, in a latent state,
in the very same order in which they were
originally impressed and, as we cannot ra-
tlonally suppose the feverish state of the
brain to act in any other way than as a slim
ulds, this fact, land it would not be difficult
to adduce several of the same kind,l con-
tributes to make it even probable, that all
thoughts are, in themselves, imperishable :
and that, if the intelligent faculty shonld be
rendered more comprehensive, it would re-
qulre only different and apportioned or
ganization, the body celestial, instead of the
body terrestrial, to bring before every human
soul the collective experience of it's whole
past existence. And this-this, perchance,
is the dread book of judgment, in whose
mysterious heroglyphics every idle word is
recorded Yea, in the very nature of liv-
ing spirit, it may be more possible that heav-
en- and earth should pass away, than that a
single act, or single thought, should be
lost"