The mirror. (Stillwater, Minn.) 1894-1925, 1896-05-28
Trpme.( $1.OO per year. in advance
Six Months so cents.
A POOR MEMORY.

A POOR MEMORY.
Memory training is becoming pop
ular fad. Several men more ingenious
than philosophical have invented sys-
TENS to serve as intellectual crutches
for a poor memory. All of these sys-
TENS are simple enough, and as far as
they 60 perfectly correct and scientific.
They are merely practical applications
of the law of association. But they
do not penetrate deep enough to reach
the real cause of the trouble.
Most people of poor memory are
fully persuaded that their deficiency
is an affliction visited upon them by
Providence They regard it as some
thing to be deeply regretted, but are
the beatitude: Blessed are the poor in
memory for they shall be spared mes
sages.
The secret of the whole difficulty
lies in the fact that acts of the mem
ory are commonly supposed to be in
voluntary whereas they are as purely
voluntary as the lifting of the hand.
To remember requires originally dis
tinct and conscious effort of the mind.
This consists first of an act of the at
tention and second of an act of the
will. In course of time this effort be-
comes by force of habit so mechanical as
not to be recognized as voluntary. Peo-
pie grow thus to assume passive atti-
tude in regard to the memory. They
allow information or messages to pass
before the minds eye, and if they hap
pen to retain the impression, we'll and
good; if not, they simply attribute it
to poor memory and acquit themselves
of any responsibility in the matter. 1t
is clear case of mental Incidence.
People are not willing to make the
necessary effort to reach out with the
faculty of attention, and grasp the
point in question, holding it firmly
with what might be termed the mus
cles of the will.
|
to be attributed in ordinary cases to
deficient powers, but to disinclina-
ton to exert them. There are, to be
sure, exceptions to the rule in the case
of the aged or of people in poor health.
But in general the principle holds
good.
Anyone suffering from the incon
venience of poor memory, would be
surprised, if he should make fair trial
of his abilities in this line, at the ro
bust and reliable memory he would
suddenly develop. Those who from
faults of education are wholly undis-
ciplined in attention may need to re-
sort to mechanical devices to fix fact
in the mind. But the natural associa-
tion of ideas readily suggests such sim
pie means.
There is no semblance of reason why
anyone possessed of ordinary endow-
ments should lack powers of recollec-
tion. He of the short memory must
look we'll to his reputation for intel
lectual energy.-Minneapolis Times.
If you would increase your happiness
and prolong your life, forget your
neighbors' faults. Forget all the SIAN
der you ever heard. Forget the temp
tations. Forget the faultfnding, and
have little thought to the cause which
provoked it. Forget all peculiaritiss
of your friends, and only remember the
good points which makes you fond of
them. Forget all personal quarrels or
histories you may have heard by acci-
dent, and which, if remembered, would
seem a thousand times worse than
they are. Blot out, as far as possible
all the disagreeables of life; they will
| come but they only grow larger when
you remember them, and the constant
thought of the acts of meanness, OF
worse still, malice, would only tend to
make you more familiar with them
Obliterate everything disagreeable
from yesterday, start out with a clean
sheet today, and write upon it, fol