University Missourian. [volume] (Columbia, Mo.) 1908-1916, 1909-04-28
SOME TRICKS
OF THE 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. yet Victor Hugo commanded
eight thousand at will. Cuvier. the
French naturalist. and Louis Aga>siz,
the Swiss zoologist. could promptly
give the names. according to careful
estimates. of over five thousand ami
mails. in addition to the ordinary words
they knew. DIR. Asa Gray. the great
botanist OF Harvard. knew eight thou
sand plants by name and at sight :;
and The late DR.. Joseph Leidy. for many
years president OF the Academy OF
Natural Sciences Of Philadelphia, was
able to Use at will twenty-five thousand
wOrdS-this vocabulary embracing what
he knew of four languages. including
English, medicine. geography, geology
and a general science. together with Il
large number of technical words.
If We investigate and compare certain
feats of memory. We are tempted to be-
!ieve what has often been averred
that while memory may be, as DIR.
johnson puts it. "the primary and
fundamental power without which
there could he no other intellectual
operation yet it does not belong to
the higher mental processes. is a fac
ulty rather than function of the mind
and may be abnormally developed in a
brain which gives no other indication of
strength. The famous Antonio Maglia-
brchi. of Florence knew at sight every
book in his great collections: and it is
further related that Il gentleman. to
test his memory, lent him manuscript
ami. after Its return. pretended it was
lost. whercupon Magliabechi repeated
its entire contents. \ modern instance
in KIND is that of Mr.. Spoiford. for so
many years the iibcrian of Congress.
whose familiarity with the contents OF
the great library is startling. Yet we
should also keep in mind the negro boy.
William Ash. who was employed in
New York book store 1t 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 Aeneid by heart:
the Duke of Sermoneta could recite the
whole of Dante's Divine Comedy; DIR. |
Leyden could repeat a long public
document after reading it once: Da-
"ue>an once startled Boileau by recit-
IN" satire read 70 him for the first |
time. But such gifts are not alone the
of the learned. If the Rev. |
William Cullen Hicks. Il revivalist well |
known in Kentucky. does nothing else
10 perpetuate his name. he NAV be
rescued from Oblivion by his extraordina-
~ memory, which he has exercised with |
Holy Writ. Those who have heard him
claim that. excepting the Psalms. he
.an recte the Bible verbatim. berin-
ming at any Passage in any chapter
DIR. Adam Clark had from boyhood Il
memory so retentive that after listen
ng to a sermon for an hour. he could
not only repeat it word for word. but
accompany the delivery with the ses-
nres used by the preacher. initiating
lis voice and manner. One is inclined
o associate such a performance with
lecided mental development; yet we
nave it on the authority OF a mission
Try named MOffatt that after preaching
sermon to savages i'm Africa on the
nbIcct of ETERNITY" he was aston
shed to hear young man repeat it to
mother group of natives, word for
vord->ometilin" which Moffatt could
Iot have done himself.-William Trow
ridge Larned in Lippincott's. ,