The Opelousas journal. [volume] (Opelousas, La.) 1868-1878, 1873-11-21
LettertO a Student who Lament
ed His Defective Memory,
1.-THE Intellectual Life" by Phillip Gilbert
HamnrtnD


-Ss------
[" The Intellectual Life" by Phillip Gilbert
Hamerton.l
SO far from writing, as you seem to ex-
peetme to do, a letter of coincidence on
the subject OF what you are pleased TO
call your miserable memory | feel
disposed rather to indite letter of CON-
graduation. It is possible that you may
be blessed with selecting memory,
which Is EOt only useful for what it re-
talns, but for what itreiects. In the i'm
mense mass of facts which come before
you in literature and in life it is we'll
that you should suffer from as little be-
Wllderment as possible. The nature of
your memory saves you from this by
unconsclOusly selecting what has inter
ested you, and letting the rest 60 by.
what interests you is what concerns YOU.
In saying this | speak simply from the
intellectual point of view, and suppose
you to be an intellectual man BY the
natural organization of your brain, to
begin with. In saying that what inter
ests you Is what concerns you, mean
intellectually, not materially. 1t may
concern you, in the pecuniary sense, to
take an interest in the law; yet your
mind, left to itself, would take little or
terest in botany. ThepassiOnate studies
Of the young Goethe, in many different
directions, always in obedience to the
predominant interests of the moment.
are the best example the way in which
great intellect, with remarkable pow
ers OF acquisition and liberty to grow in
free luxuriance, sends it's roots into vari-
0us soils, and draws from them the con-
stltuents of its sap. AS a student of
law, AS university stddent even, he
was not OF the type which parents and
professors consider satisfactory. He
neglected Jurisprudence, he neglected
even his college studies, but took an in
terest in SO many other pursuits that his
mind became rich indeed. Yet the
wealth which his mind acquired seems
to have been due to that liberty of rang
ing by which it was permitted to him to
seek his own everywhere, according to
the maxim Of French law, chacun prend
son biet1 on IL le trouye Had he been O.
poor student, bound down to the ex-
cluslyely legal studies, which did not
greatly interest him, it is likely that no
one would ever have suspected his i'm
mense faculty Of assimilation. In this
way mon, who are set by others to load
their memories with what is not their
proper Intellectual food, never get the
credit Of having any memory at all, and
end by themselves believing that they
have none. These bad memories are
often the best-they are often the select
ing memories. They seldom win dis
tlnctlOn in examinations, but in litera-
ture and art. They are quite incOm-
parably superior to the miscellaneous
memories, that receive only as boxes
and drawers receive what is put into
them A good literary or artistic memo
ry is not like a postoffice that takes in
everything, but like very we'll edited
periodical, which prints nothing that
does not harmonic with its intellectual
life. A well-knOwn author gave me
this piece of advice: "Take as many
notes as you like, but whenyou write do
not look at them-what you remember
is what you must write, and you ought
to give things exactly the degree of
relative Importance that they have in
your memory. If you forget much it is
we'll it will only save beforehand the
labor Of erasure." This advice would
not be suitable to every authOr-an au-
thor who dealt much in minute facts
ought to be allowed to refer to his memo
randa.; but from the artistic point of
view in literature, the advice was wise
indeed. In painting our preferences Sc
lect while We are in the presence of
nature, and our memory selects when we
are away from nature. The most beau
tlful compositions are produced by the
selecting Office of the memory, which
retains some features, and even greatly
exaggeTates them, while it diminishes
Others and often altogether omits them.
An artist who blamed himself for these
exaggerations and omissions would
blame himself for being an artist.
Let me add protest against the com
mon methods of curing what are called
treacherous memories. They are GEN
orally founded upon the association of
ideas, which is so far rational, but then
the sort of association which they have
recourse to- is unnatural, and produces
precisely the sort of disorder which
would be produced in dress ifa man
were insane enough to tie, let us say, q
frying~pan to one of his coat-tails and a
child's kite to the other. The true dis
cipGne of the mind is to be effected only
by associating those things together
which have a real relation of some kind,
and the prOfounder the relation the
more it is based upon the natural con-
stItntlOn of things, and the less it con-
Germs tFiFllng external details, the better
mnemotechnic art wholly disregards
this, and is therefore unsuited for intel
lectual persons, though it may be of
some practical use in ordinary life. A
little book on memory, of which many
editions have been sold, suggests to men
who forget their umbrellas that they
ought always to associate the image of
an umbrella with that of an open door,
so that they could never leave any house
/ without thinking of one. But would il
not be preferable to lose twOor three
guineas annually rather than see a
spectral umbrella insevery door. way
| The same writer suggests an idea which
| appears even more Objectionable, Be,
cause we are. apt to lose time, we ought
| he says, to imagine askeleton clock face
| ON the vlsage OF every man we talk with
| that is to say, We ought systematically
| TO set about producing in our brains an
absurd association Of ideas, which il
| quite closely allied to one of the most
common forms of insanity. Itis better
1 to forget umbrellas and lose hours than
/ fiji our minds with associations of g
kind which every disciplined intellect
| does all it eanto getridof. The ration.
al art of memory is that used in natural
science. We remember anatomy and
botany because, although the facts they
| teach are infinitely numerous, they are
arranged according to the constructive
order Of nature. Unless there were 3
I clear relation between the anatomy oil
one animal and that of others, the
memory would refuse to burden itself
with the details of their structure. So
| in the study Of languages, we learr
several Languages by perceiVing theil
/ true sttac ctural relation, and remember.
ing these. Association of this kind, and
the maintenance of order in the mind