The weekly north Iowa times. [volume] (McGregor, Iowa) 1857-1867, 1865-03-29
GREAT MEMORIES.
Lumber.room." -

Ine memory ought 70 % Q storehouse, and not
History furnishes many instances Of pc,
sons remarkable for the strength of thei
memories, which, when We reflect on tn
limited extent Of that faculty in the genel
ality Of mankind, might be considered a
fabulous, were not some of them two we
attested to be doubtful
| Mithridates, who ruled over twenty. tw
nations, was acquainted with all their Ian
guagcs, and could express himself luentl
in each. Quintus Hortepsius, one of tn
most celebrated orators Of ancient Rome
had memory so tenacious, that after study
ing discourse, although he had not writer
down single word Of it, he could repeat
| in exactly the same manner in which h.
had composed it. We are told that i,
consequence Of wager with one Sienna
he spent whole day at an auction, an,
when it was ended, be recapitulated ever
article that had been sold, together with tn
prices, and the names OF the purchaser, il
| their proper order, without erring in on
point, as was approved by the clerk, VIII,
followed him with his book. The erudit
Justus Lipsius remembered the whole his
tory of Tacitus, and pledged himself t
recite. word for word, any passage tina
might be required, consenting at the sam,
time to allow person to stand by him with
a dagger, and to plunge it into his body i
he made single trip, or did not faithfully
repeat the words of the author.
Murat relates that he dictated one dav tc
a young Corsican an innumerable multitud.
of Greek, Latin and barbarous words, al
distinct from each other; and that when he
was tired of debating, the Corsican repeat
ed them without hesitation, in the samt
order, and then in reversed order, begin
ming with the last. The faculty possessed
by Philidor, and in our own days BY
Morphy, Of playing several games of chess
at the same time, and without seeing the
boards, is almost extraordinary.
Antonio Magliabechi, librarian to Cos,
mo the Third Grand Duke Of Florence,
is quoted as possessing such a memory
that his head was called by one who knew
him, IAN universal index, both Of titles
and matter" The following trial, it is
said, YVES once made by his powers of re.
tention. A gentleman Of Florence, who
had written piece which was to be print.
ed, lent the manuscript to Maglabechi,
and sometime after it had been returned
with thanks came to him with melan
choly face, and told him of some invented
accident, BY which. he said, he had lost his
only copy Of the work. The author seemed
almost inconsolable, and entreated Maglia-
bechi, whose reputation Of remembering
what he had read was already very grea:,
to try and recollect as much of it as he
possibly could, and write it down for him
against his next visit. Mag!iabechi assured
him he would do so, and on setting about
1t, transcribed the whole manuscript, with
out missing word, or ever varying in any
manner from the spelling. When consult.
ed by the learned writer's of the day, on
any particular subject, he could tell them
at once, and sometimes to the number of a
hundred authors, all who have ever treated
OF the same, naming the book, the words,
and often the very number of the page in
which their remarks were to be found
Magliabechi, too, although he never travelled
beyond Florence, had local knowledge of
the places. where every important book
stood, in the great collections Of different
countries. He studied the plans and Sec
t'ons Of the libraries and their catalogues,
as generals study the ground on which they
are to campaign. One day, the Grand
Duke sent for him to ask him whether he
could get book that was particularly
scarce marked with four RS, rarissin,us,
as Dominic Sampson would have described
it. mo sir" answered Magliachechi, with
out moments hesitation; it is impossible.
Your highness' treasury would not buy it
for you; for there is but one in the world
that is in the Grand Signor's library at
Constantinople, and is the seventh book on
the second shelf, on the right hand side as
you 60 in." This extraordinary man, with
out exercise, and dieted by his own choice,
on hard eggs and butter, living up to his
eighty.frst year, dying on the l4th Of
July, TIA.
William Lyon, an i,iherant actor, known
in Edinburgh about hundred years ago,
one evening over bottle with some of his
theatrical brethren. wagsred crown bowl
OF punch that the following day at rehear-
sal he would repeat the whole Of 'sDaly
Advertiser" The players, who considered
this as mere bravado, paid little attention
to IT; but as Lyon was positive, one of them
accepted the wager. The next morning,
at rehearsal, he reminded Lyon Of his bet,
imagining as he was drunk the night be-
fore. be must certainly have forgotten it,
and rallied him on the ridiculous boasting
Of his memory. Lyon produced tie paper
desired the other to look at it., and decide
the wager. Notwithstanding the want OF
connection in the paragraphs, the variety
OF advertisements, and the general chaos
which forms the composition Of a news.
paper, he repeated it throughout without
the least hesitation or mistake.
Jedediah Buxton, a poor, iliterate, Eng.
lish peasant, born about the year 1908,
was singularly remarkable for his knowl.
edge OF the relative proportions Of mum.
bers, their powers, and progressive demon.
nations. The faculty must have heeu
instructive; he was even destitute of rud,.
mentary education. To these subjects OF
calculations he applied the whole force OF
his mind, and upon them his attention was
so completely rivited that he frequently
lost sight of external objects; and when he
recognized them it was only in Respect to
their numbers If any space of time was
mentioned before him, he would soon
after say, that it contained so uany min.
utes; and If any distance he would assign
the number Of hair breadth>& in it, even
when no question was asked him by the
company.
Being required to multiply 456 by 37s,
he gave the product by mental arithmetic,
for he could neither read nor write,) as
soon as another person present had com
pleted it in the common way He was
then requested to work it audibly, that his
method might be known. He began by
multiplying 456 by 5. which produced 2,
2sO this he again multiplied by 20, and
found the product 45, 600, which was the
multiplicand multiplied by 100; this pro-
duct he again multiplied by 8, which pro-
duced 136,S0O, the sum of the multipli.
cand multiplied by 800. It remained
therefore to multiply this by 7s. which he
effected by multiplying 2,280 (the product