Saint Mary's beacon. [volume] (Leonard Town, Md.) 1867-1983, 1883-08-30
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AlsassIs.
PowER on MEMoRv. Us memory ca
pabIe for preserving through success
sIve generations the facts Of history Or
whatever elre people are continuous
~ interested in knowing ? At FIRST
one i apt to say sNo. remembering
low seldom two people can agree in
their recollection of even the briefest
aSying CT e0mmonest occnTrence. But
look into the matter. Note how the
power Of memory differs 10 different
peo-le, how It may be cultivated. and
especially how il strengthens when
systematically depended on. while
when little i left to it. it weakens.
10 is a small fact, but not without
significance. that among thefrst things
which children are set to tx in their
memories, apart from any idea Of sa-
credneas. are long series Of historical
names. dates and evenEs-Engiish
kings, American eolonists and Presi-
dents--far exceeding in difficulty those
IsraelItish histories which Kuenen
thinks cannot be trusted because only
preserved by memory. This shows
that II il less question Of the power
Of memory than Of how far memory is
looked on as sacred, and guarded 70
as to hand down its contents unimpair-
ed.
As for evidence Of the power OF
memory, what better can We desire
than the well known fact Of the trans-
mission Of the Iliad, with its 1857
lines, for generations, perhaps for CEN
turies, before it was even written 2
Yet even that is mere trife com
pared with the transmission Of the
Vedas. The Rig-Veda with its LOTT
hymns, il about four times the length
OF the Iliad. That is only part Of
the ancient Vedic literature, and the
whole was composed. and fixed, and
handed down by memory, only, as
Max Muller Gays. by memory kept
under the strictest discipline"
There is still a class Of priests in
India who have to know by heart the
whole Of the Rig-Vcda. And there
is this curious confederation Of the
fidelity with which this memorizing
has been carried on and handed down,
that they have kept on transmitting
in the ancient liberal form laws pro-
hibiting practices that have never
theless become established. Suffice is
now found to be condemned by the
Vedas themselves. This was first
pointed out by their European stu
dents, and has since been admitted by
the native Sanskrit scholars.
Nothing ctuld show more clearly
the faithlulness Of the traditional
memory and transmission. 1t has,
too, this further bearing on the date
Of the so-called Mosaic legislation. 1t
shows that the i,.ct Of customs exist
ing in country for ages unchalleng-
cd does not prove that the laws con-
demning such customs must necessa-
rily be Of later origin. But there is
more that is instructive in the trans
mission ofthis Vedic literature. There
has been writing in India Cor $500
years now, yet the custodians Of the
Vedic traditions have never trusted
TO it. They trust for the perfect per-
petuation and transmission Of the ga
cred books to disciplined memory.
They have manuscripts, they have
even a printed text, but, says Max
Muller, ::they do not learn their sa-
cred lore from them.
They learn il, as their ancestors
learned it thousands Of years ago,
from The lips Of teacher. 80 that the
Vcdic succession should never be bro
ken. For eight years in their youth
they are entirely occupied in learn
ing this. They learned few lines
every day. repeat them for hours, so
that the whole house resounds with
the noise and they thus strengthen
their memory to that degree that,
when their apprenticeship is finished.
you can open them like a book, and
find any passage you like. any word,
anyhccent." And Max Muller shows,
from rules given in the Vedas them
selves. that this oral teaching of them