Ashtabula weekly telegraph. [volume] (Ashtabula, Ohio) 1853-1873, 1861-04-06
WHOLE NUMBER $50

ing and experience is written as with Z
colorless ink TO be bronght .out with fright.
ful legibility in the light Of eternity. The
power Of memory Is conjured up to add to
the horrors Of perdition. There is not a
third-rate preacher in The country Who has
failed to intimate his belief that one 81, the
principal tortures Of the lost win consist
Of terrible recolleetions. The walls Of tho
mind are to bura forever and forever with
pictures Of guilt hung there during the brief
earthly life Throughout eteFfiity the
hopeless soul Is to tread the round of memo
ry, and draw alike from its lights and sbad-.
ows the motives OF its misery. But this
strikes me as bad philosophy and worse re-
ligion. Besides, it is a sword with double
edge II memory is to pluy an importapt
part in the retributions of the futaFe life,
the delights Of Heaven must be drawn
mainly from the records and recoIlections
OF earth. Let us thank God that IL any
poor children Of His shall 90 fatally and
forever astray from Him, there will remain
for them one refuge to which their weary
teet may fiec-one sprin at which their thiras
tyiips may drink There VIII remaiu for them
the memory of childhood, Of mothers ca
resses, wife's chaste kiss. OF love sympa.
thy. There will remain for them the recol-
lection of long days of sunshine. Of banks
of violets, of fresh breeEes coming in cool
and sweet from a flashing seq, and Of inha.
merable home delights Where shall q
hopeless soul go to save It from Selfcop.
mption--whither shall uttermost despair
fee, except 20 memory for breath and booni
1 hardly know whittier I am rambling III
this most unprecedented talk about mem.
ory; yet l have had a general aim at the
illustration of certain truths concerning the
relations of rumnations to memory 1t ia
| true that many memories retain materials
that are utterly indigesrible. The parrot
| that remembers aud repeats the words
"God is great never digested them, and
they have only the relation to its life that
an orange has to the basket which contains
it. 1t is exactly thus with a great multi.
tude Of minds. Facts are piled into them
crude, rough, ougruous--neither nutri.
ent in Office or nature. They are not the
stronger fer what they remember. No
man is stronger for what he remembers, ura
til the thing remembered has become auenti
and has so entered into bis vital juices, and
his vital forces that it is Thoroughly bis :
and this is the reason why men who remem.
Der everything literally and formally ara
never original men. They cannot. create.
because they lack the power they eau
compose because they have plenty Of bor-
rowed material In the literary world,
there are many men who make very pro-
| iitabIe merchandise of these borrowed ma
teriats Three quarters Of the pens that
write to-day are engaged upon rehashes, re.
views, representations of old facts, old af,
fairs and dead men, The men who write
themselVes--wbo produce new things-who
introduce into literature fresh streams OF
thought-are very rare. -.
The great vice Of the systems OF educa,
tion prevalent in our schools and colleges
is that they make the cultivation Of liter
al and formal memory their principal aim
and end The pupil who eau cram the
greatest amount of materials ipto bis mem.
ory-it makes no difference whether be di.
gests them or not--is the best scholar, and
receives the praises and the premiums of the
professors. That man is supposed to be
the best educated who can answer the larE-
est number of questions according to the
text books But the difference between q
first rate scholar, judged by the standards
of the college faculty, and FIRST elsss man.
measured by the common sense Of the World,
has become so apparent in these latter days
that need not enlarge upon it. There is
something in it, however, which il would
be well for the college faculty to examine,
and which will furnish q sufficient basis foe
a much needed refornf.ii sgaol Fad aas
In these papers propose to draw upon
memory for facts upon which to ruminate \
and to present both the facts and the re@
suits of the process to which l subject them
tony readers. 1t Is not a very tastefcl
thing, perhaps, to choose a heifer for ones
muse but am in for it now, and really
have not the privilege of choice left. ~ The
last results of animal rumihation are milk
and beef. The most that / feel warranted
in promising for my heller is that her milk
shall be upadulterated aud undilnted, and
that If, at last, it shall be deemed best to
kill the creature, her beef shall be tender,
juicy and healthful.
e&riBaIdi in a hospital. aii Vo3
"aE .H. rrH a. .r.r' ~