Alexandria gazette. [volume] (Alexandria, D.C.) 1834-1974, 1886-03-13
THE MYSTERY OF MEMORY.

Coeri9nr dared /" maintain that To 10
not really forget : THAI thoughts aud events
only seem Ia be lest FROM recollection and
that If the intellect were quickenei q little
the whole past existence would be brought
to view again. In illustration, he gives at
length the story ofthe ignorant servant girl
who repeated whole r5alnl5 in the original
Hebrew when derangegi, of which she could
not recall Il word IN her sane moments. She
seems 10 have learned them from an eccen-
tric ministers repeating them aloud as he
paced the kitchen floor. De Quincy tells 8
little better than many others Of q drowning
friend reyivins his whole experience at the
seeming approach Of death, with the intima
ton that under similar excitement this
would be the experience of nearly all men,
showing that even the earliest past still
lives. Many Of our German immigrants lose
their native tongue, but in the weakness of
the las. hou. nothing is more common than
lis return, with other thronging reccllections
Of childhood.
The famous William Tennent, Of New
Jersey, seemed at his return to life after
two DAYS death, not even TO recognize the
Bible bis sister was reading. BY and by his
brother was repeating passage from a Lat
in reader. when it burst like lightning
flash upon the strengthening consciousness
OF Tennent that these were old, familiar
terms. and al his forgetfulness soon disap-
pcared.
Niebahr, the Oriental traveller, when old,
feeble and blind, saw hardly anything, hour
after hour hut the magnificent scenes of the
East pictured on his memory. The cloud
less blue of the eastern heaven, bending so
motherly over The vast deserts beneath,
shore more viyidly tnan when he hud wan
dered in those scorchinH lays.
Abercrombie tells Us Of four years old
boy, who, after being irepannca for Il blow
on his skull. lost all recollection OF the in
Jury. But, ten years after. de'irium brought
back every incident Of i.iS suffering. and hc
detailed it all from ;hc beginning. When
Sir Walter Scotts memory seemed 10 have
gone, he was yet ahic 10 reca'! the Watts
poems and the Scripture lesson oi his in
fancy These facts are full Of .u@nesi"ns
especially to clersynicn.
There was Corsican H., vino & ,ui r.
hearse forty thousand word, wnethe: sense
or nonsense, as they w~i:' dictated, ard then
| repeat them in tn" reverse: order without
making single MISTAKE, \ rhy:i ian, about
| sixty years ago couid repeat the whole If
| i !
| he had no: :cad j; fof twent. v..;rS Euler
| the great matbenalic,a:,. v:,yn nc became
| blind, could repeat The whole Of Virgil =
| ".Eneid,' and could remember the first line
| and the last 'in" nt every page OF The par
| ticular edition which he tit., haou ac;.Estnm
ed to read before he became hind On" kind
OF retentive m"rurry may nc considered as
the result OF sheer work, :, determination
toward one particular achievement, without
reference either to cultivation or 10 memory
on ether subjects This is frequently shown
by persons in humble life in regard to the
Bible. An old beggar man in Stirling,
known about fifty years ago as ''nilud Al
ick," afforded an instance of this. He
knew the whole Bible by heart, and if q
sentence was read to him he could name
both the chapter and verse; or if only the
| book, chapter and Verse were named, he
could give the exact words. A gentleman, TO
test him, repeated a verse, purrosely max
F.! ing one verbal inaccuracy. Alick heststed,
named the place where the passage was to
be found but at the sane time pointed out
the verbal error. The same gentleman ask
ed him TO repeat the ninstieth verse of the
seventh chapter Of the book of Numbers
Alick almost instantly replied, "Thero Is no
verse. That chapter has only eighty-nlne
verses" Gassendi had acquired by heart
six thousand Latin verses, and in order to
give his memory exercise he was in the
habit daily of recitirg six hundred verses
from different languages. Saunderson, on
other mathematician, could repeat all Hor-
aces odes, and great part OF the other
Latin authors.