Clarke courier. [volume] (Berryville, Va.) 1869-1997, 1904-06-08
MARVELS OF MEMORY
SOME REMARKABLE INSTANCES OF
THE POWER or REcOLLEcTION.

tocicS q famous Greek general. is said
10 have known every citizen i'm Athens.
No doubt Oth0. the Enran emperor.
owed much OF his success to remark
able memory. lie learned tnc nalSe Of
every soldier and officer n his army.
and this. among other things rendered
him SO popular that hc WAS at length
acclaimed emperor.
Uortcnsius the Roman orator. Is said
TO have been able. after sitting a whole
day at q public sale 10 give an nc
count from memory OF an things sold.
with the prices and names OF the pur-
chascrs.
Coming To later times. the following
anccdotc affords an instance of won
dorful powers OF memory. Nm Eng
lishman went to Frederick The Great
OF Prussia for the express purpose Of
giving him am exhibition OF his powers
OF recollection Frederick sent for Vol.
tairc. who WAS then residing at the
pruSSian court At the Kings request
Noitaire read q long Poem which he
had just composed The Enulishman
was present au6 GAS in such a position
that hc could hc0r every word of the
poem. though hc was concealed from
Noltairc's notice. After thc reading eC
the poem Frederick observed 60 the au-
thor that the production could not be
an original one. as there was foreign
gentleman present who could rccitc
every woul OF it. voitalre listened i'm
amazcmont TO the stranger as he re-
peated. word for word. the poem which
he had been M SO much pains I'm com
posing. and giving way 90 momcn-
tary outbreak OF passion. he tore the
manuscript i'm pieces. lie was then In
formed how the Englishman had be
come acquainted with his poem, and
his anger being appcascd he WAS Will
Ing 10 DO pcnance 10y copying down the
work from the second repetition OF the
stranger. who was able 10 20 through
IL as before
There lived in the sixteenth century
ut Padua a law student who had train.
cd his memory TO such q high degree
of perfection that he could recite &C.
600 words after once hearing them
read
Jcdcdiah Buxton. an illitcrate per-
son Of the eighteenth century. used TO
put his memory TO a curious use. on
one occasion he mentioned the quaint
" of ale he had drunk free of cost
since he was twelve years old and the
names of the gentlemen who had given
it 10 him. The whole amounted 10
5,11G pints.
As again showing that rctentive gifts
were not found in the educated alone.
there is n notable instance of "Blind
/ Jamie" who lived some years ago in
Stirling. lie was q poor uncducatcd
man and totally blind. yet he could
actually repeat after a few minutes
consideration any verse required from
any part of the Bible even tho obscur-
est and least important
IN instance of q wager being won
10y feat of memory was that OF
person who repeated an entire newspa-
per, advertisements as we'll. after
single reading.
The power of retaining events has
| sometimes been manifest i'm 4 marked
| degree \ laboring man named Me-
| CARNEY, ut iifty-fOur years Of age,
/ claimed that he could rccollcct the
/ events of every day FOR forty years.
/ a test was made by a well known
| public man who had kept written
record for forty-five years. The mans
! statement was fully coToborated-in-
deed, so accurate was his recollection
/ that he could recall without apparent
| effort the state of the weather on any
| given day during those forty years.
Another instance Of a wager being
won by a feat of recollection was that
\ of Mr.. Futter, who several years ago
was well known 1.-THE collector in
Norfolk He wagered that he could
recollect every word of sermon that
was TO be preached and afterward
write it out verbatim. He was not seen
to take notes and ut the close OF the
sermon retired to Il room and wrote out
the sermon. On comparison with the
manuscript, which the preacher had
been asked to bring for the purpose, it
was found to vary in one instance
only, where n synonym had been used.
but in that Mr. Futter was proved TO
be correct, for the clergyman had a
distinct recollection Of substituting one
word for the other in his delivery
When reporting was forbidden in the
houses of parliament and any one seen
TO make notes was Immediately eject
ed the speeches. nevertheless. were
published in the public press. 1t was
discovered that one WoodfaH used 10
be present in the gallery during the
speeches and. sitting with his head be-
tween his hands, actually committed
the speeches 10 memory. They were
/ afterward published.
Lord Macaulay had marvellous IA
cility for remembering what he read.
lie once declared that if by accident all
the copies OF Millions Paradise Lost
were destroyed ne would be able to
write out the whole Of this long poem
without single error. III fact. he
once performed the marvellous feat OF
repeating the whole poem, making only
one omission.
Charles Dickens, after once walking
down q street, could remember the
names of all the shopkeepcrs and their
businesses. Spare Moments.