350 ATREATISE 



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5. And therefore the more imprefltons, that are made from the 



How Ac me- feme obje& upon the fenfe, the more participations of it will 

 Bicry of things be gathered together in the memory : andtheftrongerimpref- 

 ?&* acd / ^? n$ ^ t w *^ upon occafion make in the fantafie : and themfelvc* 

 and how it i ^ ^ t ^ 7C ft ron Ser to rcfift any caufe that fnall ftriye to de- 

 repaircd fecethem. For we fee that multitude of objects overwhel- 

 med! the memory j and putteth out, or at the leaft,maketh un- 

 profitable, thofe that are feldcmeft thought on. The reafbn of 

 which' is^that they being little in quantity, becaufe there are but 

 few fpecies of them; they can never ftrike the feate of knowledge, 

 fcitt in company f others; which being more and greater, doc 

 make the impreilicn follow their nature againft the leflcr : and 

 In trad of time,things ieldome thought of, doe grow to have 

 but a .maimed aadconfuicd Inape in the memory; and at length 

 tre quite forgotten. Which happencth , beeaufe in the liquid 

 medium, they are apt to moulder away, if they be hot often re- 

 paired : which mouldrihg arid defacing, is helped on by the 

 (hockes they receive from other bodies : like as in amagazin, a 

 thing that were not regarded, bit were carelefly tumbled up 

 thddowne, tomakefoome for others, and all things were 

 promifcuoufly throwne upoft it ; it would fbone be bruifed and 

 cruflied into a miHiapen forme, and in the end be broken all in 

 pieces. 



No\v,the repairing of any thing in the memory , is done , by 

 receiving new imprelfions from the obje<ft; or in its abfence, by 

 thinking ftrongly of it : which is an aflembling.and due peecing 

 together ofthe feverallparticles of bodies , appertaining to the 

 fifcne matter. But fometimes it happeneth.that when the right 

 one cannot be found intire^nor all the rderly pieces of it,be re 

 trived with their juft correipondence to one another the fan- 

 fie maketh up a new one ia the place of it : which [afterwards,, 

 upon piefence of the object , appeareth to have beenc mi- 

 ftaken : and yet the memory, till then, keepeth quietly and 

 unqueftionedly for the true obje , what either, the thought, 

 or chance, mingling feverall parts, had patched up toge- 

 ther. 







And from herice,Vf emay'difcern,how,the loofing or confoun- 

 ding of ones memory, may happen either by fickneffes, that di- 

 fiemper the fpirits in the btaine,& diiorder their motions,or by 



fome 



