| OCR Text |
Show 28 INSTANCES OF have more power. The power of the mind luls nothino- at all to do with goodness or badnes~ of memo~y or with the simple fact of remembermg. Persons' of weak judgment have often t~e . best memories; and have them just because theu JUdgment is weak. Those who have been muc+h employed in educating young people, and have atLen~ed to the subject, and been capable. of understan~mg it. know very well that t~ose pup1ls who ca_n, w~thout effort, learn every thmg by ~ote, are with difficulty made to understand any thmg; and grown-up persons that can quote "day and date" for every tnfling oc~urrence can seldom give a sound or valuable opinion upon a~y m,atter of importance. I knew a fool, who was placed under ~he charge ?f a clergyman in the country, as bemg utterly mcapable of conducting himself in ordinary matters (he was a young man of fortune, and did not need to work, except for his amusement), and yet he could repeat every word of the clergyman's sermon, tell how many people were in t~e church, how any one th?-t sat in a pew named to him was dressed, or who did or did not contribute to the poor. He ~ould ~o that for any Sunday, if you gave him any hmt o_f It; la~t week, or last year, was all the same to him. Hrs memory was, in short, as per~ect as m~mory_ could be ; but then he had no judgment m the u_smg of It; and so, when in company, it often made him seen~, _and not unfrequently made other people feel, very nd1culous. It would not be fair to mention n~mes on. such a subject; but the fact is beyona quest_wn, and 1~ bears so closely and forcibly upon the obJect of tl~1s ~ection and indeed upon the whole purpose of ~Ius little voldme, that I shall mention one other mstance. Some time ago, there was employed, as a reporter to one of the morning newspapers, a gentlemar;t of the most amiable character and the most upnght conduct· but one who never made a profound or even an 'original observation in his life, unless the 1\IIW.E :M.ElUOR Y. 29 uncouth juxtaposition of two matters of memory, between which there is no congruity or connexion, can be regarded as a sort of ludicrous originality. He had been long a faithful labourer on the establishment, and so he attended the Upper House, where the every-day duty was then easier than that in the Commons. He took no notes whatever, and yet, if an unexpected debate sprang up, and he was left for hours before any one went to relieve him, he could write out the whole verbatim. While listening, he was literally "held by the ear," so as not only to be incapable of thought, but almost · of the use of all his other senses. In the office, too, he was the oracle of facts and dates; and, as he had read the newspapers diligently for many years, he knew almost every parliamentary sentence, and could tell by whom it was spoken, on what evening, what was the subject of the debate, and who were the principal speakers. His memory was chiefly a memory of sounds, and probably that was the reason, at least one of the reasons, why his judgment, weak as it was for the opportunities he had had, was so very much superior to that of the young man previously mentioned. Th<X5e two instances, the one of which would be, in common language, called a " natural," and the other a" very soft-headed man," are not given with the smallest intention of undervaluincr the fact or as it is ?Sually called, the faculty of 0memory: Far from It, the fact of memory is the foundation without which there can be no structure of knowledge. 'fhose are merely instances in which there was plenty of f?undation, but very little structure; and the perfectiOn of the matter consists in the two agreeing with and being worthy of each other. It w~mld be easy to give other instances; but some will occur .to every observant reader; and indeed those. menttoned are decisive of the point. It Is not from the mere fact of our being young |
