The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1901-06-02
MEMORY A LOST FACULTY
MANY MODERN HELPS SERVE TO EN-
COURAGE ITS DIsUsE.
Forgetfulness and Laziness Are Twins
school Boy and Business Man
Suffer for Like Reasons.
Chicago Evening Post.


Not many years ago a slate was part of
the apparatus of the schoolboy. When the
little chap sided along the street leading to
the temple of learning
with his satche
and shining morning face, creeping like snail
Unwillingly to school,
the satchel held perhaps two books and d
slate; to the latter was attached a string
from which dangled one end slate
pencil and on the other a sponge. The day
came when the nerve-worn American
schoolma am demanded WOODEN cover for
the frame of the slate, and mothers bag
of patches drawn upon and her busy
hands cut and sewed the refractory strip
in place
Later this task was taken from her by
the factory; but she did not foresee the
end. Modern invention was 10 take away
more than the slight task of covering the
slate. 1t went on rapidly to cheaper the
making of paper and pencils until the slate
itself was banished from the schoolroom
Even then the shrewdest prophet could not
have foretold the very serious loss which
this was to bring upon the Nation-the loss
of well-disciplined memory.
For with the neat, convenient little tab
let and pencil always at hand, and with
an ever-increasing mass of detail pressing
for mental assimilation, it soon became the
habit of the schooboy TO lay the charge
or remembering upon the serviceable page.
He no longer bothered himself to remember
things, but jotted them down to refer to
when needed. This was sure and easy. VIII
humanity ever become wise enough to look
with suspicion on anything that is tempt
iEgly easy? Not until we learn by sad eX-
perience that disuse of a faculty means
the approach of atrophy. The first genera
ton of writer's of memoranda has at last
lost the faculty of remembering anything
with precision. A list of three or four
items must be committed to writing; We
shrink from the effort of memorizing it.
SECRET OF GOOD MEMORY.
Here the uneducated peasant of Europe
has the advantage. The aboriginal redskin
could hear farther and see farther than his
white successor. We are dropping behind
European or Asiatic ignorance in the fac
ulty of memory An Irish servant some
years ago surprised her mistress often by
remembering with unfaiing accuracy the
five, ten or even twenty items of an order
at the grocers. She was tested again and
again. with lists which required choice or
judgment, directions to what to select
and what to reject. She declined TO wait
for written list, but never made a mis-
take. After several weeks the secret of
her unusual memory was revealed, much
TO the poor girls discomfort; she could not
read
What youth of to-day can listen atten-
lively TO his mother and store up temper
arily in his memory twenty items? Where
is the man, woman or child who would
start out To hunt up a strange house with
only mental memorandum of its number?
Few are the teachers parents who have
recognized the evil and are attempting
to meet ii. These few are convinced that
forgetfulness and laziness are own broth
ers, pair of twins that should be forbid
den entrance TO good society.
As an auxiliary agent to the pencil and
tablet in the injury of the power of MEM
cry the daily newspaper stands first. We
take IL up and read and forget we have no
distinct object OF attending closely To the
page for the purpose of storing the memory
with its manifold details. The indolent di
version of the hour is our sole object UNI
item or class of news which perhaps is
necessary for our business.
DISTANT PERSPECTIVE LOST.
IT may be remarked in passing that the
multitude of small things near by has de-
stroyed our sight for large things in the
distant perspective. We thus lose not only
memory, but the sense of proportion i'm
things spiritual The material presses upon
us on every side, insistent for notice, of
almost infinite variety and detail, and al
result often we get our truths strangely
mixed. Financial reports, stock quotations,
bank deposits seem TO us the all-impOrtant
things the real. PRACTICAL facts. as we say,
of the business world; whereas the only
unchanging verify and beauty i'm il all Is
the great fact of credit. OF human charac-
ter and integrity, the confidence which man
places in man, and without which our
whole financial system would crush to-
gether like an empty eggshell
There is no doubt that the great complex
ity of modern life has much 10 do with the
decay of the memorizing power One need
only compare the book trade of the day
with that of fifty years ago TO realize the
injury doing ourselves by attempt
ing too many little things. We must re-
vert to the world-old metaphors of the
leaves OF the forest or the sands OF the
sea TO find an adequate expression for the
output of printed matter, which is Justify
ing day by day the remark of the preacher.
Ii Is a small crumb of comfort To reflect
that. although there may be no end to the
making of many books, the limit of profita-
Bile manufacture may some day be reached
and recognized.
Fewer books i'm earlier days meant a
deeper deposit in the mind from each one
Not all OF those earlier books were better
than many We can boast in each decade
now; yet proportionally fewer ventures
rushed in where angels feared TO tread :
1t was a serious matter and worthy of long
and earnest consideration whether one
should baptize the child of his invention
with printers ink. Therefore, our fore
fathers read slowly and reread
storing the mind with the thoughts and en-
guage of the author. Ii is related that
Thomas Gray kept his famous "Elegy in
Country Churchyard' I'm manuscript for
twenty years, making now and then lit
tie change before it finally reached the
printers hands.
SUGGESTING A REMEDY.
Right here is a hint for the recovery Of
our lest faculty. Let each one of us de-
liberately resolve to learn ''by heart every
day. or at least every week. few lines
from one OF the great masters of literature
There was a time in the early days of the
Sunday school when it was considered an
obligation resting on every member TO
commit TO memory a group of verses in
the weeks lesson. AS the English OF the
King James version and of Shakespeare is
the cornerstone of all of modern English
literature, the reader who has grown up
without an Intimate acquaintance with
these great founders often must miss the
point OF an allusion or illustration that IS
packed with meaning to the initiated.
Let such a reader, with no other object
than cultivation of the power OF mem
ory take up his Bible now and then and
commit a Few verses, and he will have
gained an inestimabe benefit beyond the
increase OF useful faculty. Let him take
some of the grand psalms, the nineteenth,
twenty-third, forty-fourth, ninetieth one
hundred and twenty-frSt. for example: or
mount, or one OF Paul's OutburStS of elo-
quence, as in I Cor. xiii: nowhere be
found such material for growth.
Memorizing of favorite passages from
Shakespeare is of similar advantage, an
advantage which must be tried TO be ap-