Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1911-12-29
SOME MARvELs OF MEMORY.
Astonishing Feats Performed by Fas
nous Mental Prodinies.

Astonishing Feats Performed by Fa'
nous Mental Prodinies.
The organs OF sense paint a moving
picture on the brain cells which Is al.
most instantly mirrored on the screen
OF consciousness. The pictures pass
from the screen but not from the brain
cell; they remain there like intermin-
able frescoes upon labyrinthine walls
whence the will may again drag them
before the consciousness. That is men,
ory.
! the fleetest boat that e'er
The widest wanderer bore.
| AS swift as thought itself to bear
From shore to farthest shore"
It carries one to Rome and into tr
Sistine chapel. The choir Is chanting
the famous "Miserere," by Allegri, the
copying Of which was forbidden by the
church under the penalty Of excom-
munication. In q corner Of the chapel
a boy Of IA listens with trained ear
listens to jealously guarded piece re-
peated twice. In his room the tone pic
lures transmitted to MoZart's brain
were recalled accurately and transcrib-
ed upon paper and the next day he sang
the "Miserere" at a concert to his own
accompaniment on a harpsichord. All
Rome, including the pope, was as
founded. The pope sent for him and
instead Of accommodating him heap
ed honors upon him, so extraordinary
was the feat regarded.
Over in England Samuel Wesley
produced from memory after a lapse
OF twenty five years an oratorio cover
ing upward of 300 closely written pages
which he had composed in early life.
He stated that he saw the score in his
minds eye as accurately as If 1t lay be-
fore him.
Won Beulow could give piano reci-
tai every day for a month, and repeat
no number, all from memory.
The poet, Milton, 1t is said, could re-
peat Homer in Greek almost without
book, and Thomas Babbington Macau-
lay, when boy, memorized Scotts
Lay OF the Last Minstrel" during an
afternoon call with his father and, on
his return home, repeated canto after
canto Of it to his mother until her pa
thence and strength were exhausted.
At one period Of his life Macaulay de-
clared that IL by some miracle Of van
dalism all the extant copies Of the
Pilgrims Progress" and Paradise
Lost" were destroyed, he would under
take to reproduce them both from
memory. Once while waiting in a
Cambridge coffee house he read two
poems in a newspaper-read them only
once-and without thinking Of them
again for forty years, repeated them
after that time without the change Of
q word.
One knows that the 10000 verses Of
the Eig-Veda have for 5000 years been
accurately preserved in the memories
of the Brahmins, and not one Brahmin
alone, but thousands can today recite
1t word for word. Thousands Of Mo-
|hammedans know the Koran by heart
Cyrus was reputed to be able to call
the name Of every soldier in his army
and Caesar could call thousands Of his
men by name. Themistocles could call
the name Of every one Of the 10000
citizens Of Athens, and Seneca could
repeat 1000 proper names in the order
in which they have been given to him
and could recite 200 verses read to him
for the first time by as many different
persons.
Michael Angelo had on his lips the
greater part Of the poetry Of Dante
and Petrarch, and Calico could repeat
most of Ariosto, Petrarch and Berni.
Justus Liepsius knew Tacitus by heart
and could repeat word for word any
passage called for. Locke states that
Pascal knew the whole Of the Bible by
heart. Liebnitz, even in old age, could
repeat nearly all the poetry Of Virgil,
word for word. Saunderson knew by
heart Horace's odes, Cicero's Offices"
and a large part Of Juvenal and Persi-
u.s. Porson, the great English scholar,
declared that he could repeat Smollet's
Frederick Random from beginning to
end.
The Italian prodigy of learning, Ig-
natius de Rosal, made the boast that II
any one could repeat line from any Of
the four great poets Of Italy. he would
follow it by reciting. a hundred lines
following in due order Of succession
plished the feat, although he had not
read the Italian poets for twenty years.
William Lyon, an itinerant actor in
Edinburgh, wagered that on the next
day at rehearsal he could repeat the
whole Of the Daily Advertiser, and,
though drunk the night before, accom-
plished the feat. Prof. Lawson, the
English scholar, declared that II the
Bible were lost he could, with the ex-
ception of a few chapters in the Old
Testament, restore 1t all. Byron knew
his own works by heart. Ben Jonson
not only knew his own works by heart,
but entire books that he had read.
Thomas Fuller, a celebrated English
divine. once undertook, after walking
from Temple Bar, in London. to the
farthest end of Cheapside, to repeat on
his return the inscriptions on all the
signs In their order, both backward and
forward-a feat which he triumphant
ly accomplished.
The American botanist, Asa Gray,
could instantly recall the names Of 25,-
900 plants.
Wonderful feats Of memory have
been performed by lightning calcula-
tors. Jeddiah Buxton, an illiterate
peasant, could tramp over a piece Of
ground and tell its contents In square
feet or inches as accurately as II he
had measured 1t with a chain. Being
asked suddenly in field how many Gu
bical eighths of an inch there are In
triangular body whose three sides, are
respectively 23.145,7S9 yards, 5,642.73S
yards. and 54,965 yards, he gave the
axoct solution from his head in five