Reporter and farmer. [volume] (Webster, Day County, Dakota [S.D.]) 188?-1946, 1906-12-27

coulO sepoat Oh WORDS aIter nearing
them once, but this Is nothing com
pared with the claims OF Seieca. In
his declamatioDs In speaking Of the
former tenaciiy Of his memory he says
that he was able to repeat 1000 names
In the orae. 10 which they had been
I given to him. He relates. too. tbnt on
n occasion In his student days, after
the different pupils of his preceptor
had recited 300 unconnected verses. he
repeated them in a reverse order-that
Is, he began with the last and proceed
ed to the first uttered. A still more re-
markable instance IL mentioned ly Sir
William Hamilton in his Lectures on
Metaphysics and Logic" He makes
the statement and cites Muretus as
authority that a young COrsican could
repeat in either direct or reverse or
der or begin. at any point and repeat
both ways "A list OF $4,000 names.
II Is related that both Horace Yer
net and Gave bore could paint a
portrait fro memory. There is also
a story that is more than tradition that
Wolfgaug Mozart set down the whole
OF the Sistiue Miscrere from memory,
and that, too. from hearing it but
twice.
Giovanni Pico della Mirandola, Pas
cal, Ben Jonson. LeibnitZ, Scaliger,
Neibuhr and Macaulay all were men
OF marvellous memories. Almost from
childhood Mirandola was noted for his
extraordinary memory. He studied
canon law at Bologna and then went
to Ferrara. where he mastered theol-
ogy and the different systems of phi
losophy and became proficient in Lat
in, Greek, Hebrew, Chaldee and Ara
bic. The wide range OF his learning is
best illustrated in the 900 theses he
proposed as subjects of controversy at
Rome In 1886. Pascal says he never
forgot anything he read. Ben Jon
o tells us that he could repeat all he
had ever written and whole books
that he had read. The same feat, too.
is credited to Niebuhr, the historian.
II is also told OF Neibuhr that In his
youth while employed In one of the
public Offices OF Denmark he was able
through his memory alone TO complete
ly restore a book of accounts that had
been partly destroyed. Leibnitz. like
Euler, is said to have been able to re-
peat the whole of the "Aeneid."
The many stories told OF Macaulay's
almost %portentous memory have peel
related too often to bear repetition.
Not a few of them are on seemingly
aarfotn anthnritr NyflI;o,, III d..
colt, who met Macaulay about 1850.
has told us some interesting things of
his memory. | shall mention but one.
This was related to Prescott by Henry
Hallam, who said that Lord Jeffrey
had once told him that. having tripped
up Macaulay In a quotation from Par
adise Lost two days after Macaulay
came to him and said, You will not
catch me again in the Paradise at
which Jeffrey opened the volume and
took him up In a great many passages
at random. in all Of which he went on
correctly repeating the original. Was
1t not a miraculous tour d'esprit? Ma
caulay does not hesitate to say now
that he thinks he could restore the first
six or seven books of the Paradise In
case they were lost"
There can be no doubt of the truth
OF this and many Of the other stories
told Of Macaulay's memory. He was
a man Of splendid talents. His knowl-
edge Of English history was unsur-
passed by his contemporaries.-John
William Perrin in New York Herald.