The record-union., 1898-01-21
Wonderful Memories.

CIV etaHsdct the important business
Tor winch its members We're elected
Wonderful Memories.
To every one is not given the prodigi.
Gus memory of the ancient Grotious. Of
Whom 1t Is said that he never forgot
anything that he had ever read q,
thouSht. Whatever truth there NAV be
In that statement there seems to be
little doubt that Tertullian was so con
Versant with the Scriptures that he
could recite them from beginning te
end. indicating their very punctuation
A modern linguist would stand aghast
at the performances of the famous Mez-
zofantf, who could converse in more
than fifty tongues. What a pity Them
lstocies had not a larger city than an,
clent Athens to conquer 1t had but
a population of 20.000 and Themistoc1es
prided himself upon the fact that he
could recite the name of every citizen
py heart. Evidently, conversation in
the days of Demosthenese did not
chiefly consist of expletives about the
weather, for that gentleman. as soon
as he had left his friends. invariably re-
tlred TO his study and repeated the re-
cent conversation with the accuracy of
a phonograph, exactly as it had passed.
Justin the Monk, of later times. was
able TO reclte the whole of Tacitus. and
he openly declared that he was prepared
to do so with a dagger held at his throat
and If he should even so much as STUN
BILE, from the first word to the last the
weapon ahould be driven in. Lord Ba-
con possessed a wonderful memory. and
/ of Nm Lat l. I
the whole of Tacitus Dictionaries are
iproyerbially hard things to master. but
the Rev. Orlando Hyman felt so con-
Vinced, as he read through Liddell and
SCOTS Greek Dictionary, that he had
mastered It's contents that he tore out
| the successive pages. Many natives OF
the East know the Samhita and Tada
text by heart, and there are Brahmins
innumerable who can recite the whole
of the Rig Veda,' a poem twice as long
| as Paradise Lost The hustle and
| activity of the present day. together
with the ever-increasing supply of
books of reference, does not tend to cul-
tfvate the powers of memory. And yet
the nineteenth century is by no means
barren of examples of prodigious menu
ory. Lord Macauley, every one will re-
member, was the possessor of one of
the strongest memories the world has
ever known. He could recite from be-
ginning to end the whole of Millions
Paradise Lost" and he declared that
| if every copy of Pilgrims Progress
was destroyed by fire in a single day,
he could reproduce it from memory.
Undoubtedly the finest memory pos
sessed by any living man to-day is
Mr.. Gladstone's. Many of his best
| speeches in the House of Commons,
bristling with quotations, together with
dates and figures, have been made on
the spur of the moment, when refer
| ence to records was impossible. De-
spite his advanced years. Mr.. Gladstone
can still recite any page in Homer if
given the number and the first word
The next position of merit must un-
doubtedly be assigned to Mr.. Chamber
lain. The member for West Bir1ning-
ham seems to know by heart every
speech he has ever made, for he often
quotes from them without referring to
reports. He has a remarkable memory
for days, dates and figures. 1t was
attributable to this fact that Mr.. Cham
berlain made a great hit" in the House
VI 1oulliiOlS lew years ago. Inc
occasion was an Irish debate. Mr.
John Dillon had been trying to show
from a former speech of the Colonial
Secretary's that he had altered his
views upon a certain Irish question.
Mr.. Dillon made quotation after quo
tation from the speech Of a most strik-
ing kind, and the Irish members cheer
ed uproariously. The only gentleman
who regarded the affair with untroub
led air was Mr. Chamberlain himself,
who sat unmoved amidst the cheers of
the one side and the depression of the
other. When Mr. Dillon had finished,
Mr.. Chamberlain rose to his feet and
calmly informed the astonished house
that he had not made a speech on the
day named on the subject. Mr.. Dillon
protested (having the speech in his
hands,, but the member from Birming-
ham stood his guns Finally Mr..
Chamberlain quietly turned the tables
ON his opponent by giving the exact
date on which the speech in question
was made, which was two years after
the events with which Mr.. Dillon had
connected it, and thus all the Irish
leaders arguments We're destroyed.
The statement was challenged at the
time, but it was found, on subsequent
searching, to be absolutely correct
London Standard.