The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1904-07-10

spot, and repeat the sermon through
out with ease. In England, and doubt
less in Europe, there have Deeh very
remarkable instances of memory. FRO
fessor Mullen tells that IN BlShop
WordsWorths time, one boy IN tne
senior part of the fifth took u2 the
whole of Virgil for his standing up,
and acquitted himself brilliantly, that
being only portion of his eight
lessons" Is that done now? Or is
the breed of noble blOOdS' extinct?
Of course such prodigious memories
must be rare. Lord Macaulay had the
most extraordinary memory of whom
l remember to have ever read. He
was not only great in memory, but
he was indeed q great writer, and has
lef verse as well as prose that the
English people will not willingly let
die Matthew Arnold to the contrary
Notwithstanding Prof. Max. Muller
said 'that reading the London Times
every morning is held responsible for
the gradual paralysis of his memory.
He was one of the great professors at
oxford University for a long time. He
told farther that the "late editor of
The Times, Mr.. Chenery, whose death
is still deplored by SO many friends,
knew the Koran and the Old Testa-
ment in Arabic and Hebrew by heart
as we'll as any ullema or rabbi. But
fer to his very extraordinary gifts OF
memory. No doubt he was modest.
But let me return to Lord Macaulay,
q writer | have been cultivating since
| was nineteen years old. | have seen
it mentioned by one of his contem-
poraries that so extraordinary was his
memory that he could read leading
article in the London Times and then
repeat it. His gifted, accomplished
nephew, Sir Otto TreYelyan, in his
charming life of his great uncle. gives
instances of his wonderful memory
and one when he was not more than
six or seven years of age. | have not
read the life since / read it soon after
publication, some dozen or more years
ago. | give briefly some examples. He
went with his mother to spend day
at a neighbours the celebrated Maria
E,dgeworth, whose novels were once
so very popular with intelligent people
at the close of the seventeenth and the
early years in the eighteenth century,
and while there Tommy having no
playmate, and nothing to amuse him
in the home of the gifted lady, who
was unmarried, found a copy of Scotts
"Marmion," and read it through, and
could repeat it all. he said. Return
ing home he gave his mother some re-
citations covering dozens of stanzas,
and would have kept on until he rat
tied off the whole from memory if he
had not been entreated to cease.
When he went out to India to codify
the laws, under an appointment of the
Government, salary more than $780,,
600 Il year, if | recall it, one of his
amuSementS on the slow sailing vessel
that took months to carry him from
England to India. was to commit all
of Paradise Lost" the greatest of
English poems, to memory. On one oc-
casion dining with dozen distinguish
ed gentlemen. some on quoted some
old forgotten lines, when he was cor
rected by another as to the accuracy
of one or more verses. Finally some
one said "Macaulay probably can
tell us which is the correct reading"
Appealed to, he said: Thirty. years
or so looking over pamphlets at q
book stall, / came across lines occur |
ring, if | remember correctly, in a
poem or extract of some fifteen or
more lines. and read them. / have
not seen them since, and never but
once, but | recall them" He gave them |
readily. Prof. Max Muller says that |
Prof. ConningtOn, of Oxford Universe !