Middlebury register. (Middlebury, Vt.) 1886-1937, 1907-04-26


the.l once, bu. tbs is nothing com
pared with the Claims of Seneca. In
his GCclamatio.s ia speaking of the
former -enacity of his memory he says
that he was able to repeat 200D names
in tha order I'm which they had been
given ~ him. He relates, too, that on
one otasiou in his student days. after
the different pupils of his prcceptor
had recited 200 unconnected verses. he
repeated them in a reverse ordCr-that
is he began with the last ana proceed
ed to the first uttered. A still more re
markablc instance is mentioned ly Sir
William Hamilton in his Lectures on
Metaphysics ana Logic" He makes
the statement and cites Murctus 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 10000 names.
1t is related that both Horace Yer
net and Gustave Dore could paint a
portrait from memory. There is also
a story that is more than tradition that
Wofgang Mozart set down the whole
of the Sistine Miserere 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 Fcrrara, 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 14S6. 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.
1t 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 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 a few of them are on seemingly
certain authority. William Ii. Pres
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,"' a,
which jeffrey opened the volume and
took him up in great many passages
at random, in all of which he went OIL
correctly repeating the original Was
1t not 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 il
case they were lost"
There can be no doubt of the trutl
of this and many of the other stories
told Of Macaulay's memory He was
a man of splendid talents. His know.
edge of English history was unsur
passed by his contemporaries
William Perrin in New York Herald