The daily morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven, Conn.) 1894-1907, 1899-02-09


ceeded to stultify themselves and quash
their former decision. The advantages
that accrue to the ordinary schoolboy
from the possession of inordinate pow
ers Of memory are self-evident. The
! Regius Professor of Greek at the close
OF the last century, the same being
Richard (his memory was SO remarka-
Bile that we are surprised he was not
called Willam) Person, discovered that
fact when still at Elton. Having lent
his Horace" to a practical joker, who
returned to him another volume with
out his noticing the fact until too late,
on being called upon to read and con-
strue from the works of Quintus H..
Flaccus, Person accomplished his task
so admirably that it was not until the
class, who We're in the secret, smiled
more or less loudly that the master said,
"Porson, you seem to me to be reading
ON one side Of the page, while am look
ing at the other. Pray, whose edition
have you?" When he came to examine
the volume it turned out to be an Eng
fish Ovid. Person, however, on being
irdered to SO on, finished the ode with
the utmost promptitude and dispatch.
| NAitoliiSl w ilLalll, 5uiid Lynn, Wy
profession a strolling actor, and pos
sessing an extraordinary memory and
an inordinate thirst, on one occasion at
Edinburgh is said to have wagered a
bowl of punch that he would at the re-
hearsal next morning repeat the whole
Of the Daily Advertiser from the begin
ming to the end. Needless to say, he ac-
complished his task most successfully,
not emitting an advertisement, the price
Of stock, or, we will guarantee, syl-
liable of any laudatory notice of his own
performance on the boards that ap-
peared therein. 1t is recorded by the
Percys that an individual, name not
mentioned, though he must have been
baptized William, fer it appears to be
characteristic of the bearers of that
name to enjoy great powers of memory
could not only repeat every word in an
ordinary newspaper from beginning to
end, but could do 50 from end to begin
ming. The fate of the ordinary individ-
ual who needlessly put the query,
What news is there to-day?" to such
a one as he, if he delivered the answer
backwards and at length, would be too
awful to contemplate.
OF Lord Macaulay, whose baptsmal
name oddly enough was not William, it
was said that if the works of Milton had
been lost he could have restored them
all from memory. 1t is related of him,
and the story only proves that every
silver lining has its cloud, that on one
occasion when. waiting for post-chaise
he picked up a country newspaper, read
two political articles through once-the
narrative carefully mentions the num-
Der lest future generations should imag-
inc that the historian read political ar
tices in country newspapers several
times over, and to have allowed such an
idea, with it's implication of insanity, to
be entertained, would almost have
amounted to libel--and forty years later
repeated them without emitting a single
word Undoubtedly a great memory
has its drawbacks. To sufferers from
the restless activity of the waves we
would commend the essayist's proven
tive for NAL de mer; while crossing the
Irish channel he repeated to himself the
whole of Paradise Lost" In an un-
appreciatve age like the present there
are we fear, some Philistines who, rath-
err than commit the masterpiece to men,
DRY, would prefer to suffer torments by
the sea, or Ooh, reckless genera tionD
take a dose of some patent medicine
Early this century there lived one
known as Memory Corner Thompson"
who possessed a remarkable memory for
and objects, and an excessive
ly poor memory for what he heard In
two sttings and twenty-five hours he
drew from memory a correct plan of
the parish of ST. James, Westminster
and parts of the parishes of st. Maryle
bone, ST. Ann and St. Martin and the
plan was so accurate that not only were
private and public houses, al
legs, etc, indicated, but pumps, trees,
bow windows and the projections of
He would take en- inventory,
from memory only, of a complete house |
from the attic to the ground floor, and
write it out afterwards, which feat he |
performed at Merton, Lord Nelson's |
ssat Nevertheless he could hear a |
once or twice, and after an in
terval of few days it would be entire
ly new to him. 1t is said that many !
prominent musicians Of to-day possess |
musical memories that approach the mi
raculous, but we hesitate to touch on
this interesting subject for it might be
urged that for musician to possess a
mervelous memory is nothing eXtraor-
binary, for no true musician is ever