San Antonio daily light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1886-1907, 1889-05-14
FEATS OF MEMORlzATlON.
Men Who Have Had No Trouble Training
Their Memories.

Their Memories.
Morphy, the celebrated chess player, could
play several games of chess simultaneously
without seeing any of the boards on which
the various games were being conducted. 1t
was certainly a wonderful feat of memory,
to see how attention and abstraction were re-
tanned thrOughout-a most extraordinary
feat, and one performed by him over and
over again, as lie used to stand alone attack
ing and defending himself against the several
opponents who were arrayed against him.
That his brain at last gave way and that he
died insane proves that physiology has some
thing to say to memory. Like every other
gift, memory must be used with discretion,
or else the frail frame with which the mind
is associated may be shattered by Overtrain-
ing, and what has been the best may be cor
rupted into the worst.
A 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
He tells us how ON one occasion a poet
wrote a long poem, which he read before a
distinguished audience. 1t was received with
great applause, but suddenly, to the astonish
ment of the audience, and to the subsequent
CONSERVATION of the author, a man started
up and accused the poor poet of plagiarism,
inasmuch as he had some time before written
the piece which had been greeted with such
well deserved applause.
This claim was Indignantly denied, till, in
proof of his assertion, the claimant rected
the whole poem by heart, word for word,
without hesitation, and defied the poet to do
the same. This he was not prepared to do,
and the audience decided that the one who
knew the poem by heart must have been the
author till he frankly declared that he had
never heard thepoem before, but had learned
it by heart while the poet read it. So 1.-The
honors were divided" the poet gaining APP
plause for his verses, the other for his mem
DRY.
The French critic, La Motto, is said to have
played the same trick on Voltaire. When a
young author he once brought tragedy,
which he had just composed, to read over to
the critic at is all very beautiful" said La
Motto, but the second scene of the fourth act
is copied, word for word, from previous
author" and in proof, to the dismay of Vol
taire, he recited every line of the scene with
out changing a word. Voltaire declared his
honesty, and it was only when he saw how
distressed the young author was that La
with the beauty of the scene that not a word
escaped the tenacity of his memory.
Sir Benjamin Brodie, in his most interest
ing Psychological Inquiries" cites the in
stance of the celebrated Jesuit Suarez, who is
said to 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
+nl -, +6ol e. g.
ever any one misquoted st. Augustine on any
subject of his writings Suarez would at once
correct the quotation, and give it with per-
feet literal accuracy. The great thinker.
Pascal, is said never to have forgotten any
thing he had ever known or read, and the
same IS told Of Hugo, Grotius, Leibnitz and
Euler. Both knew the whole Of Virgil
"4Eneid" by heart. And we have all read
how the Athenian ThemiStocles knew the
name of every one of the 10000 citizens of
Athens
Tho great critic, Joseph Scaliger, is pro-
nounced by Sir William Hamilton to be the
most learned man that the world has ever
seen. His knowledge was certainly prodig-
ious. He used to say to himself that he had a
bad memory but a good "reminiscences: he
could not learn by heart as fast as he couldwish,
but when once he knew a thing he could al.
waySrecallit. Yet this good man with his bad
memory complained that it took him twenty
one days to learn the whole of Homer by
heart; he had to devote three months to
learning in like manner the whole of the re-
naming Greek poets, and that in two years
he succeeded in getting by heart the whole of
the range of classical authors. And this is
what he calls bad memory.
The most extraordinary feat of memory il !
one which Sir William Hamilton believes tc
be true itGaut dub. cited t.. hira from Geo