The Washington weekly post., 1900-09-18

Macaulay had committed TO memory a
great mass Of dissocia.ed and unrelated
facts. To Maczuiay ahe history Of tho
world was an assemblage OF causes and
effects, OF influences and Developments,
having mutual relations which appealed
to mis- habits OF thought and his mental
appetite. His tastes and perceptions natu-
rally ran thar way. and they were highly
trained ir that direction. He recalled
events. not as isolated happenings. but as
occurrences which bore upon other occur
rences and as elements Of scheme hav-
ing numbsrless trains Of suggestion. Let
Us say that he was ultimately acquainted
with thousands of characters Ia history.
their names. their activities, and all the
leading facts connected with them. Yet Is
II 10 be supposed that he would be able 10
memorize the contents of city directory
names. streets, numbers, and occupa-
tons? Most certainly not, because they
would mean nothing TO him. Such an
achievement would be a feat OF memory.
whereas his mastery OF history was the
result or quite a different mental process.
Now take the musical illustration.
faderewski has large repertoire of piano
compositions at his fingers ends, and We
near marvellous stories of the millions OF
notes ne has committed TO memcry. This
Is an inaccurate statement of what he has
reaiiy done. A musical composition has
rhythm. melody. harmony. and form.
Fcssessins these qualities. il is intelligible.
II tells q story. IL impresses the musical
sense. 1t Is a series of suggestions and
responses. 1t arrests the attention. pro-
hnuhces ITS text. arouses expectation, Te-
alizes the same, and eliminates in a point
OF repose. IL IS not supposable that Pad
erewski mechanically memories the notes
that are written and the keys that are to
De struck. He has absorbed the compost
tion' IL Is part OF his consciousness: IL Is
a sort OF scheme in which every detail
pears relation TO all the other details
lie. US admll that Paderewskfs repertoire
Is represented In musical notation BY a
million characters Or printed impressions
is IL pure memory that enables him to
pay these pieces without looking at the
notesY III II is. he ought TO be able TO re-
MEMBER thousand notes written at ran
dom and having no rhythmic order, no
melodic form, no musical sense or coher-
ehey. nut he probably could not memor-
Ize one hundred notes thrown together In
d chaotlc and unintelligible tumble
hereiore Il Is plain that some faculty
MS performance
why, II memory was the thing. there
would be no diversity of attainment and
no phenomenal achievements In special
directions. Ii is ali a matter of brain
81 stluvture-oI taste and reeeptivity and
EaturaI selection. Take little children be-
Iore the process of education begins. One
can sing tune before he can count five;
IN another these accomplishments are re-
Versed Each child is pronounced bright
IN ms own way. but IT would be absurd 10
say tnat either exercises, really or an
parently, the so-celled faculty OF mem
ory."
Children at SeheoL,
-
asked the interested member. do they
not memorize their lessons?''
They seem TO. but many of them only
retain for time visual impressions of the
printed pages. Take a mental arithmetic
lesson containing a dozen simple prob
lens. Suppose No. 5 reads: If you have
six oranges and give away three of them.
now many will you have left% I have
known children in class who could an
swer 1t correctly If put by the teacher in
the exact language of the book and in the
consecutive order of it's appearance on the
page. But If the teacher substituted an
pies for oranges, or transposed the exam
pies. the children would be bewildered ard
could not give the correct answer. So
with history and spelling lessons. The
children retain visual impressions of the
print long enough to get through their
recitations fairly well, but not much long
er. such cases are by no means uncom-
mon They show that the real process of
education begins after a child emerges
from the so-ealle1 memory period and en-
iets the reasoning stage of Its mental ex-
tstehee. fs And IL is a perfectly well-known
fact that If a teacher has fortv puniIs ali
OF them equally studious, capable and
palnstaRing, there will be diffe rences of
aptitude and success. Why is the good
mathematician poor historian, a good
seosrapher a poor student of Latin, and
SO on! NOT because his memory Is good
or pad, as the case may be, but because
uiIerent human brains are receptive TO
dlHerent things, just like the brains OF the
persons before eited-Pillsbury, Macauay.
ana Paoerewskl: Take young man at
eollege, whose father visits the institG-
ton TO inquire about his progress. Has
ne good memory asks the father. .Ex-
cellent, replies the professor of mathe-
matics. Fair, replies the professor of
GreeK ea'e;dn. tPoor, t, replies the professor of
good memory or not? or, rather is ID not
plain that something besides memory, or
the lack or 1t, enters into his successes
and failures?
'Of course, the human mind Is a mys-
tery, ana II would be idle to attempt TO
account for all It's phenomena I knew a
young woman who was afflicted In mind
and body. Her physique was frail. her
mental powers far below the normal. and
her stupidity something almost repuIsIve
She could repeat half dozen pages OF
Browning. or Of any other writer no mat
ter how abtruse. Immediately after a SIN
gle reading. But she had no idea of the
meaning or the compositions, and In ar
hour they were gone from her. But of
course, We are not discussing freak per-
formanees Ike this. or like those OF peo.
pie TO whom the solutions Of intricate
mathematical problems come in a mys-
terIOus way
Returning TO memory, so called, I am
hrmly OF the opinion that IL Is largely a
myth that u plays but a small part in
human achievement, that ID does not exist
as an Independent and self-aetlng faculty
These propositions are sustained by fact
and logic, and l defy anybody TO disprove
them"
But as nobody attempted to do So and
the chairman at this juncture raped Cor
the regular session TO begin, the argu-
member smiled serenely as m
congratulating himself on having proved
his case and discounted all who might
wish themselves capable OF successfIlIly
combating his contention.