ON THE ABEYANCE OF MEMORY. 155 



we shall find that after a lapse of years we do not 

 remember as much as we think we do, even in such 

 a case as this ; and that beyond the incidents above 

 mentioned, and the expression upon the face of the 

 dead person, we remember little of what we can so 

 consciously and vividly recall. 



II. Deep impressions are also made by the repetition, 

 more or less often, of a feeble impression which, if un 

 repeated, would have soon passed out of our minds 

 We observe, therefore, that we remember best what we 

 have done least often — any unfamiliar deviation, that is 

 to say, from our ordinary method of procedure — and 

 what we have done most often, with which, therefore, 

 we are most familiar; our memory being mainly 

 affected by the force of novelty and the force of routine 

 — the most unfamiliar, and the most familiar, incidents 

 or objects. 



But we remember impressions which have been 

 made upon us by force of routine, in a very different 

 way to that in which we remember a single deep im- 

 pression. As regards this second class, which com- 

 prises far the most numerous and important of the 

 impressions with which our memory is stored, it is often 

 only by the fact of our performance itself that we are 

 able to recognise or show to others that we remember 

 at all. We often do not remember how, or when, or 

 where we acquired our knowledge. All we remember 

 is, that we did learn, and that at one time and another 

 we have done this or that very often. 



As regards this second class of impressions we may 

 observe : — 



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