The Ouachita telegraph. [volume] (Monroe, La.) 1865-1889, 1889-05-18
dONROE. LOUISIANA SATURDAY. MAY Is, 1889. assq
FEATs OF INCARCERATION.

FEA1S OF MEMORtxATlOS. p
Men who Hare Had No Trouble Train
~ lag Their Memories.
se lLewiston Journal
Morphy, the celebrated chess player
could play several games OF chess sim
ultaneously without seeing any OF ths
boards on which the various game
Were being conducted. 1t was Ger.
tatuiy wonderful feat Of memory, L
see how attention and abstraction wer,
retained throuHhout-a most extraor
ordinary feat, and one performed BY
him over and over again, - he used
to stand alone attacking and defending
himself against the several opponents
who were arrayed against him. That
his bratu at last gave way aud that he
died insane proves that Psychology
has something 10 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 overstraining, and
what has been the best may 10 corr
rupted into the worst. .
A wonderful genius may degenerate
Into an idiot. An amusing instance 10
given by the old philosopher Seneca,
tho master, and afterwards the Victim
of the Emperor Nero. He tells US
how on. one Occasion II puet wrote a
long poem, which he read before 4 dis
ttngufshed audience, and to the subss.
quent 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 ciaim was Indignantly denied,
till in proof Of his assertion, the claim.
ant recited the whole poem by heart,
word tor word, without hesitation, and
defied the poet 10 do the same. This
he was not prepared to do, and the au.
dience decided that the one who knew
the poem by heart must have been the
author, Till he frankly declared that he
had never heard the poem before, but
had learned 1t by heart while the poet
read II. SO "the honors were divided,'
the other gaining applause for his
verses, the poet for his memory.
The French critic, LaNiotte, Is said
to have played the same trick on Vol
taire. When young author he once
brought tragedy, which he had just
composed, to read over to the critic.
SIT Is all very beautiful" said LaNIotte,
"but the second scene Of tho fourth act
Is copied, word for word, from a pre-
viOus author" and in proof, to tho dis
may Of Voltaire, he recited every line
Of the scene without changing u word.
fra tor Nfnr ts
was only when he saw how distressed
the young author was that La
Motto acknowledged that he was 30
struck with the beauty Of the scene
that not word escaped the tenacty of
bis memory. ,...
Sir Benjamin Brodie, in his most iu-
Psychological Inquiries, ."
cites the Instance Of tho celebrated Jes-
uit Suarez, who Is said to have known
the whole Of tho works Of st. August-
inc by heart. These consist Of eleven
large folio volumes. How far this ia
literally true can never be proved, but
II is stated in the life pretixed 10 bis
works that If ever any one mtsquoted
st. Augustine on any subject OF his
writings Suarez would at onco correct
the quotation, and give II with perfect
literal accuracy. The great thinker
Pascal, Is said never TO have forgotten
anything he had ever known or read
and the same Is told OF Hugo, Grotius,
Leibnttz aud Euler, Both knew the
whole OF Virgtns "11neid'' by heart.
And we have all read how the Ath.
enian Themistocles knew the name OF
every one Of the 10000 citizens Of Ath-
ems.
The great critic, Joseph Scaliger, Is
pronounced by Sir William Hamilton
TO be the most learned man that the
world has ever seen. His knowledge
ia certainly prodigious. He used to
say to himself that he had bad men,
ory but n good reminiscence; he could
not learn by heart as fast as he could
wish, but when once he had a thing he
could always recall 1t. Yet this good
man with his bad memory complained
that 1t took him twenty-one days TO
learn the whole ofiofner 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 hear,
the whole of the range OF classical au>
thors. Aud this Is what he calls a
bad memory.
The most extraordinary feat of mem-
ory Is one which Sir William Hamilton
believes to be true without n doubt,
cited to him from Geographer Maretus,
who witnessed 1t aud had IL solemuIy
Atte3ted by four Venetian noblemen of