Mineral Point weekly tribune. (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1859-1868, 1865-08-16
GnderfHi Memories.

us mention a few of these Seneca saws
that he could, by the mere effort of his
natural memory, repeat two thousand
words upon once hearing them He also
mentions Cvneas, King Pyrrhts AInbas-
sador to Rome, who, in one day so well
learned the ran-es Of the people whom he
saw that the next day he saluted them all,
the Senators and all the poprlaee assem-
bled, each by his proper name. Cyra<.
according TO Pliny, knew every soldier in
his army bv name, and L. Scipio all the
soldiers in Rome Carneades, it is said
could repeat any volume found in the
| libraries as readily as if he was reading.
Mithridates, the king of twenty-five ma
tions, held courts in as many languages,
and conversed with each nation in its own
tongue. Cardinal Mezzofanti knew so
many languages that he might have acted
as interpreter general at the Tower Of
Babel Sipsius remembered all the his
tory Of Tacitus; Francis Suarez, all St
Augustines 5 works Avicenna, al Ars~
totle's metaphysics. Joseph ScaIiger,
when young man, could repeat above
one hundsed verses, having once read
them, and in the course Of Il few weeks
could repeat the contcn IS Of whole books
in foreign languages The German poet
klopstock cou repeat Homer from be-
ginning to end; William Lyon. a travelling
player, could repeat the whole contents Of
a newspaper, 1t is said of MagIiabeccni
that gentleman having lent him man
uscript which he was going to print, came
to him soon after it was returned, and pre-
tending that he had lost it, desired him to
repeat as much Of it as he could, upon
which Magliabecchi wrote down the
whole without missing a word
An Engli<hman once went to Frederick
the Great for the purpose Of giving him
some specimens Of his extraordinary mem
ory Frederick sent for Voltaire who
read to his majesty poem which he had
Just finished. The Euglishman was con-
cealed in such manner as to be abe to
hear every word that was said When
Voltare had concluded, Frederick OBJ
served that 4 foreign gentleman could i'm
madiately repeat the same poem to him,
and therefore it could not he original
Noltaire listened with astonishment at the
strangers declaration. and then fell into
great rage. and tore the manuscript into
pieces, when Frederick informed hm OF
ms mistake. tlle Ln@llShman again die
tated to NoitaIre the whole poem with per
feet correctness.
Morphy and other eminent ehess-play.
ers have recently given instances of their
extraordinary memories. Dir, Wallis tells
Us that he could by mere otfort Of memory
perform arltlmetica' calculations, as mul-
tjplication, division, extraction of roots,
etc, up to forty places. Zerah Colbura,
George Bidder and jcdedial Buxton were
also wonderful mental arithIneticiaus The
Last named once mentally calculated how
much Il iarthin@ doubled l4O times would
come to, and the answer was set down
from his lips in 80 places Of pounds, and
an odd Is. Cd and being once asked how
many barIeyeorns would reach eight miles
answered in ! minutes J2O,64O Sir
Walter Scott had marveiIonsly retentive
memory; 50 had Macaulay, who, it IS SAID,
could repeat from memory the whole OF
q Paradise Lost" In the stirring days of
Athenian political greatness, men could
he found who could repeat the Had and
odyssey; and we have read of man in
Naples who could repeat the whole Of
Tasso "Jerusalum Delivered, and not
only recite II consecutiveIy. but repeat any
stanza in any given book, repeat those stan
zas, in utter defiance Of the sense, either
backwards or forwards, or from the eighth
to the first line alternately. We have
heard of several persons fn@tably The late
Blind Jamie OF STR 'n@) who could repeat
tie whole CT the Bible, OF any required
eIapter or verse Of II There are, be-
sides, dozens Of j in- persons with most
marvellous memories, the chIet OF whom
/ Is, perhaps MI Emu bufft', the Hez-
zoianu OF the present day.