28 INSTANCES OF 



have more power. The power of the mind has 

 nothing at all to do with goodness or badness of 

 memory, or with the simple fact of remembering. 

 Persons of weak judgment have often the best 

 memories ; and have them just because their judg- 

 ment is weak. Those who have been much em- 

 ployed in educating young people, and have attended 

 to the subject, and been capable of understanding 

 it, know very well that those pupils who can, with- 

 out effort, learn every thing by rote, are with diffi- 

 culty made to understand any thing ; and grown-up 

 persons, that can quote " day and date" for every tri- 

 fling occurrence, can seldom give a sound or valuable 

 opinion upon any matter of importance. I knew a 

 fool, who was placed under the charge of a clergy 1 

 man in the country, as being utterly incapable 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 the church, how any one that 

 sat in a pew named to him was dressed, or who did 

 or did not contribute to the poor. He could do that 

 for any Sunday, if you gave him any hint of it ; last 

 week, or last year, was all the same to him. His 

 memory was, in short, as perfect as memory could be ; 

 but then he had no judgment in the using of it ; and so, 

 when in company, it often made him seem, and not 

 tinfrequently made other people feel, very ridiculous. 

 It would not be fair to mention names on such a 

 subject ; but the fact is beyond question, and it bears 

 so closely and forcibly upon the object of this sec- 

 tion, and indeed upon the whole purpose of this little 

 volume, that I shall mention one other instance. 

 Some time ago, there was employed, as a reporter 

 to one of the morning newspapers, a gentleman of 

 the most amiable character and the most upright 

 conduct; but one who never made a profound or 

 even an original observation in his life, unless the 



