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

certainty. He feeds in oil pastures, upon
grasses ana grains, and fruits and flowers
ahe swallows without care the crude ma
'eriais he gathers. Then, when he tires
win cropping, he ruminates- his
moral and intellectual cud--and prepares
ms iood Tor nourishment. For this process.
more descriptive and appropriate name
could not have been chosen than 'rpmina.
uon.' The process in the mental life--half
voluntary and half voluntary-wbich we
call rumnaiion, corresponds in most imnor
tant particulars with that in animal life
from which we borrow the designation
Thus / summon from its hiding ploce
where it has lain so many years, this little
memory of the COW, and rumnate upon ru
minatioD; End the full Significance of the
word l use, aud am led onward toward my
| task.
We runinate upon what we remember.
The subject may be fresh or stale but it
| always comes from the memory. Revery
ranges widely, aud finds her fivorite paths
in dreamland. Termination sits quietly down
for the mastication and digestion of masti.
cation and digestion of materials which III /,
memory holds snlject to its demand. We
mediate upon things outside of ourselves
upon God, and the stars, aud the sea-
We ruminate upon things within us. and
by rumination adapt them TO the purposes
of our life. .E
The memory is a marvellous thing to me
The popular opinion is that it is O kind of
mental basket-that some are born with a
large basket and some with small one,
and this matter OK relative capacity is all
there is to talk about. A memory is a
memory doubtless, rs cloud is a cloud ::
but the memory of my neghbor differs as
| widely from mine as the cloud that drank
wine with the sun differed from the white
faced thunder-head that fled eastward. His
memory seems to hold one class of materi-
ais and mine another His holds names
and faces, and holds them together, while
mine drops the names and retains only the
faces. His furnishes q safe home for all
sorts Of dates and statistics but these
things escape from mine as fast as pnt
them in. His is piled high with quotations
from all the poets he has ever read. Word
for word and line for line he can recall and
repeat his authors, in any department of
! literature yet l cannot repeat dozen
| lines of my own simple verses. | remem.
Der forever some little Trait of some little
animal without effort, while some great
event which it is my desire to remember,
and which has important relations to his.
tory, will pass across my mind leaving no
more trace than the shadow of a cloud up
on meadow.
suppose it to be generally that the men
of great memories are not the men of great
deeds. A man is remarkable rarely for
more than one thing Double-headed pro.
| dgies never live. You will find them preserv-
ed by spirits, in glass jars, only. If a man
have great memory-if his mcDSry be
| prodigious in any sense-it will always be
found to surpass his other powers. A man
who is remarkable for remembering the
name Of every person he meets is remark,
able for anything else. know a man
whose sole qualification for partnership
n O large hotel is his power to call every
guest by name, on his appearance at the
Office, contingently Of course upon his hay
ing been a guest Of the house upon some
previous time. lie is absolutely good for
nothing in the hotel, or in the world but
to receive customers as they come, and
give them the pleasant assurance that they
are not forgotten. 1t is very rare indeed
that men remarkable for great memory
especially that variety Of memory which
takes in and holds crude masses of fact
without su6jecting them to change
achieves decided success in any important
department of active life.
The normal healthy memory is always,
and for the most part uDconsciousIy, eclec-
tic. 1t takes to itself and holds, that which
is for the interest of the personality to
which it belongs to hold. In other words,
| it has its affinities for facts and things
those afinities radiating from, and center
ing in, the individuality Of which it is the
organ. remember that which comes into
direct relation to my life without any effort
at all remember that whose relations
to my life neither recognize nor under
derstand, only by an effort. Il ..rs
Ihaye met en--literary men even-who
made it matter of regreffnl complaint that
they could forget nothng-thatif anything
had once found its way into their minds, it
could never be driven out. They read a
poem, and they find it at once daguerreo-
typed upon their memory. They hear
story, and no particular. of it is ever lost
They make a journey. aud years afterward
they are able to sit down and relate the
miuutest incidents of each days travel.
Such men as these are often excellent COM
panions, and very pleasant writer's in GER,
tain departments Of letters, but they are
never men of originality and power. Load
a steam-tBg to her decks with coal, aud she
will have very little power left to help YES
sells into the harbor. There is great mul
titude Of men who carry too much fuel.
The men Of good mental digestion, bdseC
upon habits of ru mmation, are men whG
do not possess literal and formal memories.
The men who possess decided indiF iduall'
ty take in aud lay away only so much OF a
truth or fact as has relation TO their lndl-
viduality. The memories Of these men are
. like magnets that need only to be stirred III
the dust to draw 10 themsemlVes the steei
D it contains. Some memories are lumber
r rooms and others are Iarders-the former
{ full of materials that have no possible rela-
tiou TO the life of the possessor, the latter
, | zt .;,i,,,. nothinR that Is not for digestion