New Ulm weekly review. [volume] (New Ulm, Minn.) 1878-1892, 1889-09-18
ODDITIES OF MEMORY.
Some People Who Remember
Everything and Others Who Can
e Keep Nothing, in Mind.

Niebuhr that he remembered every
thing he had read at any period of his
life; and it is said of the reverend
doctor that he forgot he had been mar
ried within an hour or two Of the in
teresting event
John Wesley had remarkable mem
DRY, and at IS even it was still vigor-
Gus. Andrew Fuller could repeat a
poem of 500 lines after hearing it read
once or twice, could recite verbatim
sermon or speech, and enumerate the
names of the shop signs from the tenn
pie to the end of Cheapside, with a
description of the principal articles
displayed in each shop window.
Before the days of shorthand report
ing Memory Woodfalln used to attend
the house of commons and after listen
ing to a debate would reproduce the
whole without taking a single note.
The same power was possessed by Will
liam Radcliffe, the husband of Mrs.
Radcliffe, the novelist.
Both Macaulay and Sir Walter Scott
had prodigious memories, yet neither
of them could compare with Baronicius
of Middleburg, who knew by heart the
works of Virgil, Cicero, Juvenal,
Homer, Aristophanes, and the two
Plinys. If this was an example of
''rote" only we have in Mezzofanti, the
celebrated linguist of Bologna, one of
the most striking instances on record
of what, by way of distinction, we
may call intelligent memory. He was
described by Lord Bryon as 'sa walk
ing polyglot a master of languages,
and a Briareus of parts of speech
At the age of 50 he was thoroughly
versed in fifty languages perfect in
pronunciation, idiom, grammar, and
colloquialisms- before his death
he added twenty or thirty more to the
list. He used to say himself that he
never forgot anything that he either
heard or read.
It is recorded of La Fontaine noted
for his Observation-Disclosures that he
once attended the funeral of one of his
most intimate friends and shortly after
ward called to visit that friend. When
reminded by the astonished servant Of
the recent death he was as first terri
bly, shocked, and then remarked:
''True; of course; l recollect now
went to his funeral
A curious instance of memory in
sleep is related by a French writer on
dreams. He says he once saw in q
dream a number of men passing out
from a FEAST He observed them all
very attentively, and the face Of one
struck him so much that he remem-
bered it after waking. Exercising his
thoughts as to where he had seen the
face before, he at last recollected hav-
ing seen it some days previously in a
book of fashions which he had care
lessly glanced at and cast aside.
Reichenbach, a German writer on
mental phenomena, says:
Waking, I can not with whatever
effort recall the features of my wife,
who died some twenty years ago; but
if [ think of her in a dream, and her
image is represented, I get the same
with such accuracy that ] have again
before me every expression of her fine
features in all their loneliness
Ficthe, German psychologist, men
toned the case of a musician, good
composer, who once omitted to note
down a melody which occurred to him.
Afterward he could not recall it; but
later he recollected it in dream, wi tn
full harmony and accompaniment and
on waking was able to retain it until
he wrote it down.
There are endless stories of the hid
ing places of the missing deeds, and so
forth, being revealed in dreams. Let
us take one as typical.
A landed proprietor in England was
involved in a lawsuit in consequence
of a claim upon his fathers estate
which he was firmly convinced had
been discharged. Judgment, however,
was about to go against him as no
voucher could be found. But one
night, in dream, his father appeared
to him and said that the papers relat-
ing to this affair had been placed in
the hands of solicitor he had not
generally employed but who happened
to be engaged for this particular busi-
ness. In the dream the father said
that if this person had forgotten a
matter which was already rather old
he would be reminded of it by the
mention of a Portuguese gold coin,
concerning the value of which there
was a dispute at the time. The dream
was curiously verified, as the solicitor
only did recollect the circumstance on
mention of the gold coin. He was then
able to produce the missing papers
and the son gained the suit after all.