Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1873-04-10
Childreu's @epartment.
MEMORY.

ables US to retain knowledge of previous
thoughts or events, is called memory. There
is great difference in the strength and re-
tentiveness of memory in different individuals.
Some individuals seem to forget nothing,
whilst others seem to retain very little. Some
individuals remember principles, but forget
the little circumstances which are connected
with the principles. Other individuals re-
member circumstances, but forget principles.
The faculty with which some persons acquire
knowledge, and the exactness with which they
retain it, is a wonder to those less gifted.
Such individuals console themselves that
those who memorize rapidly, forget in short
time, and that those who memorize slowly,
retain what is memorized more permanently.
This is not the case. Most frequently the
very reverse is true.
Why is it that some persons acquire know
ledge more readily aud retain it longer and
more accurately than others? 1t is due, no
doubt, in many cases to a difference in the
natural powers of the memory. In some in
dividuals this faculty is very keen and strong;
in others it is dull and weak. But even
where there is no difference in the faculty,
naturally difference may, and often does,
exist in its practical powers. The memory,
like every other faculty of the mind, may be
developed or permitted to grow weak and
feeble. Properly used, the memory grows
strong and becomes more capable, both Of
acquiring and of retaining knowledge. I'M
properly used, or not used at all, it grows
weak and treacberous. One reason that
school children memorize so slowly, and re-
tain so little, and so inacurately what they
study in school, is because they do not under
stand what they try to memorize. Usually,
no one has any difficulty in memorizing words
which contain thoughts and ideas which they
understand. On the contrary, scarcely any
one can memorize detached words which con-
vey no ideas to the mind. 1t often happens
that school boy will "get over" lesson
many times, and at last know literally moth
ing about it. If, in reciting, he is so fortunate
as to strike the same sound of voice, and get
the same pronunciation of the words which
he used when getting the lesson, he will pos
sibly 60 through; but if either the sound Of
voice or accent of the words be changed, his
recitation is spoiled. The whole exercise was
prepared as parrot is taught to utter short
sentences. Nothing about it is understood,
and 80 soon as the order of the words is
changed in the least, the whole is gone from
the memory.
Another reason why the memory acts so
slowly and retains so badly, is because no
order, or bad order, is observed in acquiring
knowledge. No faculty of the human mind
can be fully developed without the strict OBJ
servance of perfect order. Still another, and
in many cases the main reason, why some
persons memorize so slowly and forget so
readily, is because their minds are set on one
thing, and they are mechanically trying to
do another. Children find no difficulty in
memorizing the witty sayings of clowns, or
the comic songs Of strolling minstrels. The
boy that would not be able to memorize the
rules of English grammar accurately in six
months, can memorize long comic song, both
air and words correctly, in a few hours. The
reason is that he sets his mind upon the song,
and he does not set it upon the rules of gram
mar. In the one case he tries, in the other he
does not try.
The value of a well-trained memory is al
most incalculable. The amount we have
read, and the number of studies we have gone
over is a matter of but little Importance.
The question to be determined is, how much
do we remember? Nearly all those men who
have won for themselves distinction amongst
their fellow men as men of learning, have
been remarkable for the strength and tenacity
of their memories. No mind can be said to
be properly disciplined in which the faculty
of memory is not properly trained so as to be
able to acquire rapidly and retain with great
accuracy and tenacity.