Memory. 29 



books I found Chapone's " Letters to Young Women," 

 and resolved to follow the course of history there 

 recommended, the more so as we had most of the 

 works she mentions. One, however, which my 

 cousin lent me was in French, and here the little I had 

 learnt at school was useful, for with the help of a 

 dictionary I made out the sense. What annoyed 

 me was my memory not being good I could re- 

 member neither names nor dates. Years afterwards 

 I studied a " Memoria Technica," then in fashion, 

 without success ; yet in my youth I could play long 

 pieces of music on the piano without the book, and 

 I never forget mathematical formulae. In looking 

 over one of my MSS., which I had not seen for forty 

 years, I at once recognised the formulae for com- 

 puting the secular inequalities of the moon. 



We had two small globes, and my mother allowed 

 me to learn the use of them from Mr. Eeed, the 

 village schoolmaster, who came to teach me for a 

 few weeks in the winter evenings. Besides the 

 ordinary branches, Mr. Reed taught Latin and navi- 

 gation, but these were out of the question for me. 

 At the village school the boys often learnt Latin, 

 but'it was thought sufficient for the girls to be able 

 to read the Bible ; very few even learnt writing. I 

 recollect, however, that some men were ignorant of 

 book-keeping ; our baker, for instance, had a wooden 



