The Ottawa free trader. [volume] (Ottawa, Ill.) 1843-1916, 1874-08-29
NarvcfN Oi memory.

Instances ofremarkable memory, generally
supposed 10 be assisted by mnemulcchny
have been gwen from the time OF Cicero Wht
concludes that memory is not, therefore, o
the heart, blood, brain or atoms; whetktt o
air or fire he is not, like the rest, ashamed Il
say he is ignorant; he undertakes, however
to assert that it Is divine, having regard Il
; such men rs CincaS the Ambassador of Pyr
irhus who Saluted the Senate and all the pUO
Pile by their names the second day after bis
arrival at Rome of 'Thcodectcs the disciple
of Aristotle, and of HorcnSiuS, Il man of hi,
own time. We have most of Us heard of .Io
scph ScaligGr, who learned the twice twenty
four books of the Nidd and OdySSeV in three
weeks; of AviCcnna, who repeated by heart
the whole OF the Koran at the age of ten; OF
/ Lipsius, who was willing to rccitc the histO-
Iries of TuCitus word for word giving any
one leave to plunge dagger into his body if
, he made a miStake-in idle license, for few
would have cared 10 run the resultant risk
OF the youth of Corsica of good appearance,
mentioned by Murctus, who recitcl all the
! barbarOus words the latter had written till he
was tired OF writing, and stopped at last, as
it was necessary 10 stop somewhere, while the
youth, like Oliver asked for more "Certain-
ly," says Murctus, che was no boastcr, and
he told me he could repeat in that way 80 coo
NOINS, IbI ONu lldll ludut lIldl W
HIM after many days, and found what hc said
true" This COrSican, As those others, was
no doubt of 4 soul disdaIning silver and gold
or he might have made his fortune by offer
ing his services to an Empcror, or Frances
Sauicz, who, after the wi,resS of Strada, could
quote the whole of Augustine (the fathers
works would fill asmall library from the egg
TO the apple. OF DR.. Thomas Fullcr, who
could name in order all the signs on both
sides of the way from the beginning of Paier
noster row at Ava Maria lane to the bottom
of Cheapside to Stocks Market, now the
Mansion House. Of MagliabecChi, whose
name is pleasantly and permanently assoCia.
ted with spiders and the proof of the lost Ms.
OF William Lyon, Who for a bowl of punch,
a liquor Of which lie was exceedingly fond,
repeated a Daiy Idrertiser, in the morning,
which he had read once only, and then in the
course of debauCh over night.
We might extend this paper far beyond its
normal dimensions by mention of such names
as Jedcdiah Buxton, who, il his witness be
true, could by some strange mnemotcchny Of
his own, multiply thirty nine figures by thirty
nine, without paper, and amuse himself when
at the theatre by compilation of the words
used by GarrlCk, and at another time by that
of the pots of beer drank during twelve years
of his life; of Zerdh COlburn, Il mere child,
of whom there remains on record a testimony
that he could tell the number of seconds in
tity.eight years in less time than the question
could be written down; or of that prodigy of
parts, Pascal, to whom reference was made
at the beginning of this paper, who is said TO
have forgotten nothing thought, read or done
during his rational age. This says the author
of the essay on the C0Hduct Of tie Human
UHde~taading, is a thing so wholly inconsis
tent with our experience of human nature
that to doubt it is no reprehensible stretch of
skeptIcism.-7hc CornhW Wdg0.iac.