The Dickinson press., 1889-05-18
FEATS OF INCARCERATION.
Me" Who Have Had No Trouble Trainiu-
Their Memories.

HM t'tN, tile celeDfaIcu CHESS player could
play several games of chess simultaneously
without seeing any of the boards ON which
the various games were being conducted. II
was certainly IL wonderful feat of memory,
u" sec how attention and abstraction We're re-
tanned thr"uShout-a most extraordinary
tett, and one performed by him over and
over again, us lie used to stand alone attack
ing and defending himself against the several
| opponents who Were arrayed against him.
That his brain nj last gave way and that lie
died insane proves that physiology has somc-
tnlnS to say I" memory Like every other
gut, memory must be used with discretion
| or"lsc the frai frame with which the mind
isaSSociatcd may he shattered by ovcrtran-
ing, md what has been the best may he cor
ruptcd into the worst
wonderful genius may degenerate into
an idiot. An amusing instance is given by
the old philosopher Seneca, the master, and
afterwards the victim of the Emperor Nero
lie tells us how on one occasion poet
wrote IL long poem, which he read before Il
distinguished audience 1t was received with,
great applause, but suddenly, tn the astonish
mcnt of the audience, and to the subsequent
CONSERVATION of the author, n man Started
up and accused the poor poet of plagiarism,
inlslnuch as he had some time before written
the piece which had been greeted with such
we'll deserved applause.
This claim was Indignantly denied, till, in
proof of his assertion, the claimant rcctcl
the whole poem 10y heart, word for word.
without hesitation, and dctied the poet to do
the same. THIS he was not prepared to do,
and the audience decided that the one who
knew tho poem by heart must have been tho
Ottfl l,,. u,
never heard thcpocm before, but had learned
1t by heart Will" the poet read it, So Tho
honors were 'lividcd,' tho poet gaining APP
ory.
played tho same trick on Noltairc When n
young author lic once brought II tragedy,
which llc had just composed, to read over to
the critic. ut isall very beautiful, said I.l
Motto, "but the second lsccnc of the fourth act
is copied, word for word, from IL previous
author" and in proof, to the dismay of Vol
tnirc, he rccitcd every line of the scene with
out changing Il word. Vultaire declared his
honesty, and it was only when he saw how
distressed tho young author was that L;l
Motto acknowledged that lie was SO struck
with tho beauty of the scene that not u word
Sir Benjamin Brodir in his most interest
ing psychological Inquiries" cites the in
stance of the celebrated Jesuit Suurcz, who is
said t" have known the whole of the works of
st. Augustine by heart. These consist of
eleven large folio volumes How far this is
literally true can never be proved, but it is
stated in tie life prciiXcl to his works that if
ever any one ms'luotcl ST. Augustine on any
1l,in # III
correct tue quotation, and give it with per
feet literal accuracy. Tie great thinker.
Pascal, is sad never To have forgotten any
thing he had ever known or rcud, and tile
same /, told of Hugo Glni,.s, Lcbnitz and
Euler. Both knew the whole of Virgil,
"1Gncid' ly heart. Aud we have all read
how the Athenian Tlrmls,orlcs knew tho
name OF every one OF the !O,Uuo citizen, of
Athens.
Tho great critic, Joseph Scaligcr is pro-
nouncc'l by Sir William Hamilton to bc the
moS lcnrnnl man that the world has over
seen. His knowledge was certainly prndig-
luus. He us,:'l to say to himself that he had n
bad memory but II gool rcmnlscrnrr. he
coudn"i nly hcnrtas fast rs hccouhlwish.
but wien once lie knew II thing he could al.
wnysrcrall it, Yet this good man with his bad
memory complained that ittool lin twenty
one days To learn the whole of Homer by
heart, lie lad to devote three month, tu
learning in like manner tn. whole of the re-
rnaining Greek poets, and that in tive years
he succeeded in getting by kcart the whole of
tic range of classical authors. And this is
what he calls II bad memory.
The most extraordinary feat of memory is
ono which Sir William Hamilton believes to
he true without doubt, cited to linn from Geo
grapher Mnrrtns, who witnessed it and had il
solcnlnly att,st"'l hy four Venetian nobIcmcn
of umdoubtcl honor. Marctus tells us how
in i'alua he met IL young Cprsi, un who had
gone tIIithrr I" pursue his studies ut the uni
yersitA. Having heard that the young man
was gifted wlth Il most extraordinary mem
ory, so that he could retain and repeat as
many rs $4,000 words, which would he read
over by linn once only, Marrtls and som"
distinguished friends asked il he would allow
them to test the accuracy of what report had
stated. He willingly consented and there
we're read over an almost inicrilnubl,. list of
words strung together without any consccu-
tive mcnning, i'll every variety Of language,
even many OF them mere gibbcrisl.
So long was the list which was written
down in order To give precision to the test
that the audience was fairly tired out, the
only fresh one being the young Cprscnn him,
self. who stood all the time with his attention
deeply fixed aud his eyes cast down upon the
ground. When it, was time he looked ND
chccrfuly and repeated the whole nnintcrcst-
ing catalogue of words without II single fault.
Then. to show how carefully he retained
every word, he went through the list back
wnrd then taking every alternate word,
first third. fifth, etc, till he tired out had
perfectly satisfied Marct'ls that he was the
most extraordinary man he had met in
all his travels. The young man added that
he would BE- ready in II years time to repeat
the task Lewiston journal.