Year: 1879

Whlch lmpreSSeS one with awe rathel
than mere wonder. 1t is when the whole
picture of lifetime flashes at once into
the mind That this occurs sometimes
when death or peril of death is imminent
is quite certain. 1t may be that it occurs
very frequently before actual death, but
this we cannot know, as all the instances
of which we have accounts are those in
which man has described his sensations
after having been saved from dying -
Most of the cases are those of drowning
men. When all hope of being saved is
gone, and the very struggle with the wa
ter is one made without conscious effort
it would seem that without being prompt
ed by the will, the memory suddenly
grasps at once the deeds of the life that
now appears about to close, and at the
same time--and this is the most singular
part of the phenomenon--recog the
moral rectitude or wrong of each act
There is case of this kind recorded oil
an English naval officer who thus remem.
bered the events of his life at the mo-
ment when he was struggling hopelessly
in the wake of the ship from which he
had fallen and he confessed that he had
been especially struck by the sudden
coming into his thoughts of a schoolboy
lie that he had long forgotten there it
was with all its circumstances, so that he
felt panied at the thought of the mean
ness and cowardice of the deceit


There are few cases where the peril
was of another kind. Thus in one in
stance, horse stopped suddenly in the
darkness, and frantically resisted all the
riders endeavors to force him onwards
until the man peering through the night
saw that he had missed his way and was
trying to urge his horse over the sharp
brink of hidden precipice. AS the dan
ger flashed upon him, with the knowl-
edge of it came in enc rush the record of
his life. This point is such an interest
ing one, that it would be well worth while
to collect the materials for wide COM
parison of cases in which it is known to
have occurred. 1t gives rise to num-
ber of important considerations as to the
character Of the memory, and especially
it gives great force to the theory that
ws really never forget anything. 1t seems too
to suggest that the power of the memory
receives an access of strength in the last
moments of life; and other facts point in
the same direction. Thus DR.. Carpenter
tells US, on the authority of German
pastor in America, that numbers of Ger
man emigrants who have forgotten their
native tongue, recover it and use it upon
their death beds and the same writer
quotes from an article in Household
Words the touching story of an idiot who
had been left an orphan in early child
hood, and in boyhood had never known
what mothers care was, dying with a
smile on his face, and with the words ::
my motherl How beautiful p on his
lips.


We have referred to the theory Of our
not ultimately forgetting anything; but
the question arises, if this theory be true,
what degree of advertence is sufficient to
impress fact on the memory We know
how common it is for old people to be
apparently quite unable to remember
more recent events, while they have new
ertheless vivid recollection of those of
earlier life. The reason of this clearly
is, that in their earlier days their senses
and faculties were more keenly alive to
what they saw, heard and felt; and thus
things impressed the memory strongly,
that scarcely touched it when they had
to reach it through the medium of the
decaying senses of old age. If this be
the true explanation, memory must de-
pend for its intensity on the degree of
observation with which the record was
made; but it may be that in the inner
depths of the memory there are stored
up recollections of things that we have
never consciously turned the mind to-
but heard or saw, hardly knowing that
we did so. Every reader of Coleridge's
Biographia Literaria will remember no.
table instance of this actually occurring.
A servant girl in some German town fell
i'll, and in her rawlings began to speak
Hebrew in plain connected sentences
She knew no language but her own; and
a i l.
until inquiry revealed the fact that she
had once been in the service of Protest
ant pastor who was good Hebrew schol-
ar, and used often to read some Rabbini-
cal treatises aloud, walking up and down
the common room Of the house while the
servant was at her work. Now it is quite
certain that any one who is ignorant of
foreign language cannot repeat even
dozen words out of a reading thus heard
by chance; yet under peculiar conditions
the fact was revealed that whole pages
of language, of which she knew not the
meaning of single word, had thus been
accidentally stored up in this girls mem
ory


We have only lightly surveyed one
portion of the action of single human
faculty. There is indeed no more mar
velous field of observation and discovery
than that of the action of the human
mind The practical lesson we arrive at
on this interesting subject is, that al
though all are not naturally blessed with
good memory, the faculty may in most
instances be less or more improved by
exercise, particularly in the young, when
the brain is fresh and susceptible. Indi-
viduals may be heard complaining of
bad memory, who have never taken the
trouble to keep it in exercise. 1t would
be scarcely less absurd for person to
complain of being unable to walk, who
for years had refrained from the use of
his legs. Let US specify one or two ex-
amples. 1t is not unusual for people to
put mark in book at the place they
leave off reading This is losing chance
of cultivating the memory. The right
thing to do is to observe the number Of
the page, and endeavor to keep it in re-
membrance. The custom of taking notes
as memoranda may in certain important
cases be allowable for the sake of preser-
vation and reference. But the practice
of taking notes on all occasions has a Sc
riously weakening effect on the memory,
and should if possible be avoided In
short, the habit of keenly observing and
remembering without note or mark is the
secret-if there be a secret in it-of Sc
curing good workable memory.


Newark Americana