Atlanta semi-weekly journal. (Atlanta, Ga.) 1898-1920, 1909-06-01
Some Tricks of Memory

The average person does not use more than
three thousand words in writing and speaking,
and the professional writer's supply seldom
exceeds five thousand. vet Victor Hugo COM
manded eight thousand at WILL Cuvier, .he
French naturalist. and Louis Agassz, the
Swiss ZOologlst, could promptly give the
names, according 70 careful estimates, of over
five thousand animals in addition to the or
binary words they knew. DIR. Asa. Gray, the
great bctanist of Harvard. knew eight thou
sand plants by name and at sight; and the
late DIR. Joseph LeidY for many years presi-
dent of the Academy of Natural Sciences of
PHILADELPHIA, was able to use at will twenty
fiv. thousand words-this vocabulary embrac.
ing what he knew Of four languages, includ-
ing English, medicine, geography geology and
a general science together with large num-
Der of technical words.
If we investigate and compare certain feats
Of memory. we are tempted TO believe what
has often been averred. that while memory
and fundamental power without which there
could be no other intellectual OPERATION" yet
it does not belong to the nlgher mental pro-
cesses. is a faculty rather than a function OF
the mind. and NAV be abnormaly developed
in brain which gives no other indication Of
strength. The famous Antonio Magliabechi
of Florence, knew at sight every book in his
great collection: and IL is further related that
a gentleman. to test his memory, lent him a
manuscript and after its return, pretended II
was lost, whereupon Maglibechi repeated its
entire contents.
modern instance in kind is that of Mr..
Spofford, for so many years the librarian Of
congress- whose familiarity With the contents
of the great library is startling. Yet we
should also keep IN mind the negro boy, VIII
liam Ash. who was employed in a New York
book store. II was claimed for him that.
having grown up among the books there he
could indicate the place of every volume in
stock, though the classification is complicated
and the books numbered by the thousand.
Leibnitz knew the Aenid by heart; the duke
of Sermoneta could recite the whole Of Dante
Divine Comedy" DR.. Leyden could repeat
a I ong public document after reading ii once
Daguesan once 0tartled Boileau by reciting
satire read to him for the first time. But
such gifts are not alone the property of the
learned II the Rev. William Cullen Hicks
a revivalist well known in Kentucky, does
nothing else to perpetuate his name he may
be rescued from oblivion bv his extraordinary
memory. which he has exercised with Holy
Writ Those who have heard him claim that,
excepting the Psalms. he can recite the Bible
verbatim, beginning at any passage in any
chapter DR.. Adam Clark had from boyhood
a memory so retentive that after listening to
a sermon for an hour. he could not only re-
peat Il word for word. but accompany the
delivery with the gestures used by the
preacher Initiating his voice and manner one
is inclined TO associate such a performance
with decided authority Of a missionary named
Moffatt that after preaching sermon to
savages in Africa on the subject of "Eterni-
ty," he was astcnished to hear young man
repeat II to another group of natives, word
for word-something which Moffatt could not
have done himself-william Trowbridge
Larned in May Lippincott's