The star of the north. [volume] (Bloomsburg, Pa.) 1849-1866, 1855-07-12
Is There any Forgetting I


upon 10 attend, on their dcath-beds. aged
Swedes, who for forty, fifty, and sixty years,
had lost the use of their native tongue, the
long suspended faculty would be recalled in
approaching death, and they would talk,
pray, and sing in Swedish. Dr. johnson,
also, when il came his turn to die, spoke not
in the march of bis own majestic rhetoric
passed by even the cadences OF those Latin
hymns in which he once had so much loved
10 dwel-but was heard with his sinking
voice muttering child's prayer which he
had learned on his mothers knee. Strange,
indeed, is the providence, and yet so wise
ly illustrative Of the absence of time as an
element in the divine economy, which thus
brings together the two extreme points OF hui
man history, birth and death This sam re-
markable quality is thus touched upon by
Coeridee:
s'In Roman Catholic Town in Germany,
young woman of four or five aud twenty,
who could neither read or write, was seized
with nervous fever, during which she con-
timed necessarily taking Latin, Greek, and
Hebrew, in very pompous tones, and with
most distinct enunciation The case had at
tracted the particular attention of young
physician, and by his statement many emf
nenl Psychologists visited the Town, and ex.
amined the case on the spot. Sheets full of
her rawlings were taken down from her mouth,
and were found 10 consist Of sentences CO.
herent and in;ellgible each for itself, but
with little or no connection with each other.
All trick or conspiracy was ont of the ques-
lion. Not only had the young woman ever
been harmless, simple clealure, but she
was evidently laboring with nervous fever.
In town in which she had been a resident
for many years as servant, in different fam
lilies; no solution presented itself. The young
physician. however, determined TO trace her
past life step by step for the patient herself
was incapable of returning rational answer.
He at length succeeded in discovering the
place where her parents had lived travelled
thiiher; lound them dead, but an uncle sur
viying, and from him learned that the patient
had been cha-iiably taken in by an old Prot
estant pastor, al nine years old, and had re-
mained with him some years, even ill the
old mans death. With great difficulty he
discovered neice of the pastor, of whom
anxious inquiries were made concerning his
habits, and the solution of the phenomenon
was soon obtained. For il appeared it had
been the old mans custom Tor years to walk
up aud down passage of his house into
which the kitchen door opened, and read 10
himself with loud voice out of his favorite
books. kconsiderable number Of these were
still in the neice's possession. and the physi-
clan succeeded in identifying so many pas
sages with those taken down at the young
woman's bedside, that no doub, could remain
in any rational mind, concerning the true or
igin of The impressions made on her nervous
system.
aThis authenticated case furnishes both
proof and instance, that relics of sensation
may exist tor an Indefinite time in latent
state, in the very same order in which they
were originally impressed and as We cannot
nationally suppose the feversh slate Of the
ptoiu w oot III oty othOi "oJ thau 40 q stith
ulous, this fact, (and it would not be difficult
10 adduce several of The same kind contrib
utes 10 make il even probable that thoughts
are in themselves imperishable. and that if
the Ineligible faculty should be rendered
more comprehensive, it would require only
different and apporioned organization, the
body celestial, instead of the body terrestrial,
to bring before every human soul The collec-
live experience of its whole past existence.
And this--this perchance, is the dread book
ofjudgment, in whose mysterious hyerogly-
phic every idle word is recorded Yea, in
the very nature of living spirit, il may be
more possible that heaven and earth should
pass away, than that single act: single
thought, should be loosened or LOST Presby-
terian.