The Mount Holly news. [volume] (Mount Holly, Burlington Co., N.J.) 1891-1942, 1907-01-01
ESTABLISHED 1875

Indivlsibles." To this he applied the
Cartesian analysis and produced his
great work. the "Arithmetica Infinitori.
unl'-''the most stimulating mathe
NAUTICAL work so far published in Eng.
land Here he makes the successful
attempt to solve number of the more
simple problems of the calculus by tina
summation of series to infinity The
work was one of great influence. New.
ton read 1t while an undergraduate al
the university and from 1t Immediately
derived his blnomia formula. The
power Of concentration and of memory
were both very strong with Wallls-so
strong, it is said. that on one occasion
while in bed in the dark he extracted
the square root of a number of fifty.
three places to twenty terms and
repeated the result twenty days after.
ward"
These examples of~retentive memory
are quite well authenticated and give
FEASIBILITY to the possible truth of 9th
ers frequently cited. Pliny tells us
that Cyrus the Great knew the names
Of all his soldiers, and Cicero in his
DE Senectute" says that Themistocles
could call by name the 10000 citizens
of Athens. From Cicero, too, we learn
something of the remarkable memory
of SophOcles. who In old age when
judicial proceedings had been institut-
ed to determine his mental competency
recited to the Judges the "Oedipusv at
Colona to prove his mind was not fall
Ing.
Plato makes Hippias boast that he
could repeat 500 words after hearing
them once, but this is nothing COM
pared with the claims of Seneca. In
his declarations in speaking OF the
former tenacity of his memory be says
that he was able to repeat 1000 names
In the order in which they had been
given to him. He relates, too, that on
one occasion in his student days, after
the different pupils of his preceptor
had recited 200 nnconnected verses, he
repeated them in reverse order-that
is, he began with the last and proceed
ed to the first uttered. A still more re-
markable instance Is mentioned by Sir
William Hamilton in his Lectures on
Metaphysics and Logic" He makes
the statement and cites Muretus as
authority that young Corsican could
repeat in either direct or reverse or
der or begin at any point and repeat
both ways list of $4,000 names.
1t is related that both Horace Yer
net and Gustave Dore could paint &
portrait from memory. There Ia also
a story that is more than tradition that
Wolfgang Mozart set down the whole
of the Slstine Miserere from memory,
and that, too from hearing 1t but
twice.
Giovanni Pico della MirandoIa, 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 theoI-
ogy and the different systems Of phi
iosophy 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
son 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.
ic oil fol ~ Of rrt,r %bo% H. 1T
youth while employed in one of the
public offices of Denmark he was able
through his memory alone to complete
ly restore 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 been
related too often to bear repetition.
Not few of them are on seemingly
certain authority William II. Pres
colt, who met Macaulay about 1880,
has told us some interesting things OF
his memory. l 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
adlse 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 great many passages
at random, in all Of which he went on
correctly repeating the original Was
it not miraculous tour desprit? 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 knowk
edge of English history was unsur-
passed by his contemporaries
William Perrin In New York Herald.