The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1901-03-17
THE MATTER OF MEMORY.

THE MATTER OF MEMORY.
That part of the mental equipment known
as memory is the cause of a great deal of
trouble and annoyance to its possessors
first and last. In youth much time has to
be given to the training of this faculty and
the child is forced to spend many irksome
hours in storing away a collection of facts
for which he can see no use, and when he
would far rather be following his own va
grant taste in the matter of occupation. In
view of the fact that a large part of the in
formation he has thus painfully and reluct-
antly acquired slips away from him, or at
least beyond his command, within a very
short time after his school days are ended,
he is sometimes disposed in later years to
feel that his youthful Instincts were right
and that he might as we'll have been al
lowed to indulge his cratic fancy and go
fishing or skating or to the public library
reading room to pore over the pictorial
weeklies or to hang around his fathers
shop or to lie in the shade and dream. But
though he forgets much that he is supposed
to have learned. and though educators and
PCy NAAOAOSASbo - ina Gil ID " III
means the highest faculty OF the mind, he
is assured by these same educators that his
mind in all it's parts has undoubtedly been
much strengthened by its wrestlings with
advanced mathematics, with history, Greek
roots, Latin declensions, and so on, and
with this assurance he has TO be content.
Personally. and apart from any opinion OF
the educational authorities. he is likely to
care very little for the memory which re-
tains everything, since his experience
teaches him that the man who is always
ready with his dates, his figures, his out-of-
the-way facts, his quotations, who is. in
short, a walking encyclopedia, usually has
his best mental development in his men,
Dry, and in judgment and original thought
has no more than ordinary power. if that.
There are exceptions to this rule, of
course-a notable one in local circles will
occur to some of the older readers of the
Journal; but, for the most part. the man
who without effort retains in mind what
ever comes. whether he has special use for
it or not. is a man who gives out only what
he receives and nothing of his own. Conse-
quently, he has but a feeble individuality
and is in danger of becoming something of
a bore. Especially is this true if he is
greatly given to quotations from the poets
or other authors. Is there a more tiresome
creature than the man who. on the smallest
provocation. reels off long passages of verse
or prose supposed to be suited TO the occa-
sion? The fact that these quotations may
be from classic writer's does little TO miti-
gate the afiction.
But while it is true. that the indiscrim-
inately retentive memory does not rank
high as an intellectual quality. a memory
that retains what is needed is extremely de-
sirable, yet one that seems to be growing
more rare. The specialized memory is COM
mon en~ougE-the memory that a man
needs in his particular business. The book
keeper without effort recalls the page in his
ledger on which a given account stands;
the bank teller sees before his minds eye
the signatures of the banks depositors: the
insurance man has by heart the facts
and figures relating to his Calling: the
physician remembers the properties of
drugs and the preacher has a reasonably
trustworthy of texts. But even
the professional memory is not to be de-
| pended on, and for these as we'll as for the
one which requires only general informa-
ton innumerable aids have been devised in
the shape of reference books. In these
days. when so much presses on the atten-
ton from every direction. education has
come to consist to q considerable extent in
knowing where TO find the desired fact in
books. To be able to do this involves in it
self no mean feat OF memory.
But it is IN the things concerning which
no books can help and no system OF mne-
monies yet devised can control that MEM
DRY raiys the most FRANKS. Ii is said that
forgeifulness is a sign of advancing years.
but a man is likely not TO reach many
years before he finds himself confronting a
blank space In his mind where the name OF
an acquaintance or q near friend should be.
or the name OF a town. or some isolated
fact of much immediate Importance. If he
is a writer and suddenly discovers that the
exact word he wants has slipped away
) from him the handy thesaurus helps him