Iowa voter. [volume] (Knoxville, Iowa) 1867-1874, 1872-01-11
Good Memories.

Is long and rbo was it that said he had bad mem
'ust Neigh : hut a good fOrgettery? We forget
veyer, nee = wap's name, but his statement might
spiritnou y adopted by almost anybody, though
MINISTER'S bt neople out of ten will tell you that
mind n ~. have good memories. That is to saw,
3 Bites bey retain very clear ana VIVID impress
he fran :o3s of certain things; they never forget
cred fS - business or their social engage
'4~' msnts they can tell in what year or
NTH this or that incident came under
which W. LIN observation they remember CONVEX
oy recon lions that took place long since, and are
Johasa sallon, ooourota in oil Stat;Stio.1 mot
ip ~ aalos srs But if you could compare what
ms c Iras these people remember with what they
acb r1~- ave forgotten, you would be very eau
lung din isus about crediting them with good
We }, memories To apply this test is of course
mnossible; but little observation will
n mad nnyince one that almost every mans
djscn memory is restricted within very narrow
srcultn limits One man remembers faces and
81 fall ana not names another names and not faces
one ttg third neither faces nor names, but
@'y Cad Voices One pupil in class can give the
date Of certain historical transactions
-Fsw Init is wholly unable to state the attendant
NO Circumstances while another pupil, who
vioIs 'Va' rannot carry date in his mind for half
- +" IN hour will have no difficulty in recall
Ian ID no the minutest detail. We know of an
''' sl' sdor who can repeat page of blank
verse or of prose after reading it once
D,
Win 0-o' night and could not if his life depend
WA you a on his doing it regularly We read
lily desto n;orv lint thew q 70 alwavs instances of
3D. be faculty working in special directions.
an We find this in a recent English journal
- '- John Kemble used to say that he could
hHd'a al Earn whole number of the Morning Post
d. In four days. Scalger could repeat a hun
fred verses or more after having read
hem a single time. Seneca could repeat
~ n, two thousand words on hearing them
" adj Ence. Magliabecchi was once put to Sc
Last lrg kere trial. A gentleman lent him a man
pnabsr hcript which was read and returned. |
The owner, some time afterward, pre-
ending he had lost it, begged Magliabec-
kbi to write out as much as he could re-
4 the IN, nember; whereupon the latter, appealing
G viDr % his memory, wrote out the whole essay.
eases no rus if some of the old historians are
ates ss b be credited, could remember the name
m0 I'D every soldier in his immense army.
ut3s MUSICIAN of Massachusetts,, about hall a
% tA1 entury ago, could repeat the whole OF
The ~ Paradise Lost without a mistake, al
Is aedt Dough he had not read 1t for twenty
egulae EARS Euler, the great mathematician,
orgaa then he became blind could repeat the
stomach whole of Virgil's 1E'neid, and could re-
hosteus member the first line and last line on
: ' livery page of the particular edition which
- s1 he had been accustomed to read before he
% became blind" These are certainly very
ons ~ Wonderful illustrations OF the power OF
and = &anemory-nemory playing, like Paganini,
ri }pn one string; but no doubt the people
m,g N who accomplished the various feats de
e afs kcribed had very poor memories IN other
ID nss matters. To be able to repeat a hun
Ter asa Elred verses after one reading Is no proof
e an aF pf good memory-except so far as the
| anu verses 60. A man might fail lamentably
Tent ne under such test and yet possess good
It only memory, by which we mean catholic
'na ~ memory. This we take to be about the
,e eri rarest of gifts We have never met more
pa1a than two or three people who seemed to
possess it.
thread If the ability to remember the little
i bsff things of Everyday life were more com
&c ling mon, we could very well do without such
1aTs exceptional powers as were possessed by
' drn. Magliabecchi, Scaliger, Cyrus and the
I snshs rest. The world would be spared vast
@ u srg M deal of annoyance if men and women |
orana1 we're more generally blessed with humble |
iss me- na healing common place memories. People |
UT "ba who never recollect what they said or
b Ss what somebody else said, are always get
he Ell ting themselves and their friends into
be- ee trouble. The well-meanng folks, who
in hL cannotfor the life of them repeat thing
al, 'say i as they hear it, constitute very large
skin class The less dangerous but more absurd |
people who always forget where they left
ps tE a book paper or some such trIi1e, are
,fca of everybody's acquaintance. The people |
the n who forget that they owe you five dollars
re ar are too numerous and almost 700 paihiui
sen-s 70 mention Good forgetteries are great
d, a deal more common than good memories,
thst and, as Hamlet said to his mother, we
would it were not So" There is one
thing to be said in extenuation OF us
mortals. We all would have good memo.
res if we had our way about II. but
"a memory is faculty placed nearly if not
2 al wholly beyond our control 1t seems to
8 work quite independently of ourselves.
We often find it impossible to remember
gg The things that interest us most deeply,
and are made to burden our minds Win
matters to which we are entirely lndlf,
9 erent This is universal experience, and
8 should render us charitable to people who
Su have good forgetteries and bad memories.
-Ecery Saturday.