Greenbrier independent. [volume] (Lewisburg, Va. [W. Va.]) 1859-1980, 1886-03-25
The Mystery Of Memory.

Coleridge dared to maintain that We DO not
really forget that thoughts and events only
seem 10 be lost from recollection ; and that
if the intellect were 9uickened lille the
whole past existence would be brought 10
view again. In illustration, he gives at lesgth
the story Of The ignorant servant SrI who re.
peated whole psalms 10 the original Hebrew
When derauged, of which sic could not recall
word in her sane momeqH. She seems to
have learned them from DO ecceuiric minis.
ler's repeating them aloud as be paced the
kitchen floor. Dc Quincy tells little better
than many Others OF drowning friend reviv-
inc lis whole experience at the seeming ap-
pruach of death, with the inlimation that III.
der similar excitement this would be the en-
perience OF Dearly all men. showing that even
The earliest past still lives. Many OF! our
Ciermin immigrants lose their native Tongue,
but irf The weakness OF the last hour nothing
is more common than its return, with other
throucing recollectons of childhood.
The famous William Tenncnt, of New Jer-
sew, seemed, at his return to life aler two
! DAYS death, not even to recognize the Bible
his sister was reading. By and By his brother
vas repeating passage from Latin reader,
when it burst like u lightning flash upon the
! strengthening consciousness OF Teuncnt that
these werr cid, familiar terms, and all his for.
grlLircss ,nOu Disappeared.
E:cbahr, the Oriental traveller, when old.
! feeble and blind, saw hardly anything, hour
after hour. bul The magnificent scenes OF the
East pictured on his memory. The cloudless
blue OF the Eastern heaYeu. bending so moth
! pr!y over the vast deserts bcucath, shonc
more yivihly than when nc had wandered in
those scorchjug rays.
Abcrcrombe tells us OF four years old
! boy, whu. after being trcpnnncd for blow Oh
| III, skull. lost all recollection OF the injury.
! But. ten years after, delivum brought back
ever incident Of bis suffering. aud he detailed
il al! from tho beginning. When Sir Walter
Scott. memory seemed TO have Soue, he was
yc, able To recall the Waits poems and the
Scripture lessons Of his iu!nncY. These facts
are full Of Suggestions, especially to clergy
tueu.
/ There vas II Curslcan boy who could re.
hcarsc forty Thousand words. whether sense
or nonsense. as they were dictated, and then
repeat them in the reversed order without
making Il sin lie mis- take y rhysc!an ab"uI
sixty years ago. could repeat the whole q!
- Paradise Lost" without mis- take, although
he had rot read it for twenty years. Euler,
the rrCa, mathematician when lie became
blui, could repeat the whole Of Virgil
" .Eucil." and could remember the lir-I line
and the last line Of every page Of The parlIcu'
lar rGItion which he had hccn accustomed to
read before he became blind. One kind at
rctr.itivc memory may be considered as the
result III sheer work. determination toward
ON" particular achievement, without reference
either to cultivation or 10 memory on other
subjects. This Is frequently shown bY per-
Sous in humble life III rcGar! |" The }ibe.-
an old hcssar man in Stirling. known about
fly years aro a. " bind Aick." afforded an
instance ui This. lie kmrw the whole Bible
by heart. aud II Il srnlEncC WIS read I" him
hr cDui;i nuni" bnil lhr c;ur,rr and verse ;
or # only the hnnk. chapter aud verse were
named. lac cuGd give the eXac. words. y
rnullcma,:, to lest him, repeated Il verse, PUT
pn-aly making csc vcrbSi inaccrlncy. AlicE
hn.iralr,i nDmeG tic place wbese Tie passage
~ - =" f..r,.G. hnt ut lpc same iDnc painted
nul Inc verbal error. The same gentleman
asked him ln repeat the auetieth vrrrc "a tie
! seventh rhapic: III the book u! Numbers.
Alick almost instantly replied, ETHER" l. n"
such verse. That chapter hIs only "'.hlY-
nine verses" GaasCnd had acquired hr
hear; six thousand la - verses. anal IL order
tu rlyr hi, memory r%'rci~r he wa IN the
habit daily nf :rcirnr * hundred verses
lrnui different languages. Snumi"rson. an
other mathematician. could repeat al! ri linr-
a,.c's ODE. and n great part ui the other
min au'hTr-.