The suburban citizen., 1900-06-16
MIRACLES OF MEMORY.
Visualism is Peculiar and Rarely Culti-
vated Function.

Yuteu
Professor Charles II. Judd, Of the
University of New York, says: One
Of the most extraordinary feats Of
memory ever known was that Of
Henry Nelson Pillsbury, recently the
American champion chess player,
when he played twenty simultaneous
games without seeing any of the
boards. One blindfold game is far
beyond the power of ninety-nine out
of hundred chess players, but Mr..
Pillsbury succeeded in the colossal
task OF remembering for several hours
the constantly changing positions OF
GAO bits of wood.
Not only did he win fourteen, draw
five and lose but one of these twenty
games, but at the close also remem-
bered the details of every play aud
corrected several mietakes which had
been made in recording them.
Wonderful as this is it need not
alarm Mr.. Pillsbury's friends with
fears of mental breakdown. He has
merely given the world one of the
most remarkable examples OF what we
call visualism--a peculiar and rarely
cultivated function of memory.
There is nothing abnormal in a feat
of this kind, and it need not be re.
garded as an enormous strain upon
the mind. Abnormality only appears
when one faculty stultifes all the
! others. The probable fact is that
Pillsbury has discovered a better
method Of playing chess than others,
which makes hitherto impossible
task comparatively easy for him. ]
am certain that he could not have
played against twenty tables by the
aid of any artificial memory system.
These systems are like crutches-
they help up to certain point aud
then are apt to hinder. Visualizing
is simply a matter of concentration
and development of certain pictorial
quality of memory. Those who are
most likely to excel are those who de.
vote themselves entirely to one men.
tai pursuit. They develop the faculty
of becoming oblivious fall that takes
place around them.
L once knew a minister who mem
orized his sermon by this method Of
visualizing. He would reproduce in
his mind the manuscript just as it had
been written, so that wherever it was
blotted he would have difficulty in re.
membering it. Most of us have this
power to some slight degree, and it
may be cultivated. One of the sim.
| plest methods of strengthening the
memory in this line is to endeavor to
recall what we have seen during a
walk through the streets.
Some people seem to be entirely
without this power of mental photog-
raphy, and tine following story is some
times used in clRssrooms as a testi
The story relates that when Napoleon
was visiting one of the military hos
pitfalls in Paris he stopped by the bed.
side of an old soldier who had lost
both an arm and leg. The old SOL
dier in an ecstacy of loyalty sprang
from the bed and, drawing his sword,
cut off with single blow his one re.
naming arm.
If Pillsbury were to be told this
story he would see its absurdity at
once, but person who has no power
of representing ideas as pictures
would believe it to be a possible oc.
currence.
We hear frequently of the marvel.
Gus achievement of some actor or ac.
tress who commits to memory several
hundred thousand words in single
season. This is not done by visuahz.
ing, but by sequence. Change the
sequence OF the speeches and the mem
ory often fails.
Memory is an exceedingly complex
thing. 1t is not the highest type OF
mental function, and it is noticeable
that this power of visualizing decays
as the power of abstract thought
grows.