The Newberry herald and news. (Newberry, S.C.) 1884-1903, 1888-09-06
MEN WHO NEVER FORGOT.
Prodigio'ts Abilities in Connection With
Moderate MentaEtJ-Extraordi
Powers of Memory Displayed by
an Idiot-Learned Men Who
Never Forgot.
TChambers' Journal.

TIES, DIS oil arIuul IlS1T,S ueCIdIeo jill
his delightful book entitled "Social
Plessure," it by no means follows that
I'LL those who are possessed Of great
! memories are "great people" Many
an instance might be cited to show
that men of very moderlte intellectual
capacity may be endowed with apower
of memory which is truly prodigious.
In addition to this there are plenty of
well authenticated examples of the ex-
traordinary power Of memory displayed
even by idiots. In the memoirs of Mrs.
Somerville there is curious account
ola most extraordinary verbal memory.
"There was an idiot in Edinburgh" "
she tells us, ''of respectable family,
who had remarkable memory. He
never failed to 60 to the kirk on Sun
day, and on returning home could
repeat the sermon, saying: Here the
minister coughed; here he stopped to
blow his nose" During the tour we
made in the Highlands" she adds,
1--WE met with another idiot who knew
the Bible so perfectly that if you asked
him where such verse was to be found
he could tell without hesitation and
repeat the chapter"
Of similar kind is the memory for
which Daniel Mccartney has become
famous in the United States. The
strange story of this mans achieve
ments is told by Mr.. Henkle in the
Journal of Speculative Philosophy.
Mccartney, in 1869, declared that he
could remember the day of the week
for any date from January, 1927, that
is, from the time when he was 8 years
and 4 months old-forty-two and a
half years. He has often been tested,
and, so far as MIR. Henkle's account
goes, had not failed to tell his question
er "what day it was" and to give some
information about the weather and
about his own whereabouts and doings
on any one of the $1,000 or more dates
that might be named. With all this
singular power Of memory, however,
he is not man whose general grasp of
mind is at all noteworthy.
THE RICH GIFT OF MEMORY.
The same may be said Of scores Of
men whose one rich gift of memory
has brought them into prominence. No
one has claimed any high intellectual
rank for the renowned Memory Cor
ner Thompson who drew from actual
memory, in twenty-five hours, at two
sittings, in the presence of two we'll
known gentlemen, correct plan of the
parish of St. James, Westminster, with
parts of the parishes ofSt. Marylebone,
st. Ann and st. Mortin: who could tell
the corner Of any great leading thor
oughfare from Hyde park corner or
Oxford street to St. Paul's who could
"take an inventory Of a gentleman's
house from attic to ground floor and
write it out afterward. He did this at
Lord Nelson's at Merton, and at the
Duke of Kent's, in the presence Of two
noblemen.
Since the revival of learning in Eu-
rope there have been scores, yea, hun
dreds of scholars who have known
'their Homer by heart and thous-
and other things besides. Bishop
Saunderson, old Isaac Walton tells us,
could repeat all the odes of Horace, all
Tully's Offices and the best pat of
Juvenal and Persuis. Euler, the mathc-
nlatician, and Liebnitz, the philoso-
pher, could recite the Eneid from be-
ginning to end. In their day Porson,
Elmsley, Parr and Wakefield held the
foremost places as scholars, and all, of
course, had rare memories; but the
palm must be given to Person, Of
whom endless stories are told. Before
he went to Eton he was able to repeat
almost the whole of Horace, Virgil,
Homer, Cicero and Livy. When, as a
practical joke, a schoolfellow slipped
the wrong book into Porson's hand
just as be was about to read and trans.
late, the boy was not disconnected, but
went on to read from his memory, as if
nothing had occurred. In later life his
performances approached the miracu-
lous. 1t would require all onr space to
give any fair idea of them, for he not
only knew all the Greek poets and
prose writers pretty we'll by heart, but
could recite whole plays of Shakes
peare, or complete books from para
disc Lost" Pope's Rape ofthe Lcck, "
Barrow's sermons, scenes from Foote,
Edgeworth's Essays on Irish Bulls, "
scores of pages from Gibbon or Rapin.
OF THE GIGANTIC ORDER.
Gilbert Wakefeld's memory was also
of the gigantic order, but it will not
bear comparison with Persons. There
were few passages in Homer or Pindar
which he could not recite at mo-
ment's notice; Virgil and Horace he
knew perfectly, and he could recite
entire books from the Old and New
Tes aments without halting or failing
in a single verse. There was also John
Wyndham Bruce, whose leisure time
was devoted to classical studies. His
chief favorite was Eschylus, the whole
of whose plays he had learned by
heart, including the 1900 lines of the
"Agamemnon" collated by Robertel-
lus. He knew his Horace in the same
way, and was quite content until one
day he met with an old fellow student
at Bonn, who, when he made quota
ton, would mention book, ode and
verse, remarking that he did not re-
gard any one as knowing Horace prop