MEMORY. 151 



are assigned to it. Is it not thus that the innumerable 

 divisions of the retina perceive with equal distinctness 

 degrees of light? and is it not rational to suppose that it is 

 the same with the region of the brain, 'which receives the 

 nervous filaments which spring from every portion of the 

 retina? 



Very feeble in the first stages of life, the memory is deve- 

 loped along with the cerebral convolutions, and the gray or 

 cortical substance. It loses its facility as mature age succeeds 

 to youth, and retains with more difficulty the facts confided 

 to it in proportion as years accumulate. In the aged it 

 retains the impressions acquired during the first half of life, 

 though in some fortunately endowed organizations it con- 

 tinues to increase its stores. Cato learned Greek in his old 

 age; and Baron Humboldt at fourscore embodied in his 

 Cosmos the whole circle of the sciences, and their most 

 recent discoveries. 



