30 WHY DO WE REMEMBER! 



when they happened, that the events of our youth 

 return to us in our old age, while those of the more 

 energetic, and therefore more valuable period of 

 our manhood, which, in respect of time, are more 

 recent, are forgotten, and " will not come when we 

 do call them," call with what earnestness we may. 

 As little is it that our judgment is in youth more 

 acute ; for we have seen that the most perfect 

 memory a memory probably more perfect, and 

 certainly more minute, than that of any person of 

 superior intelligence can exist with very little judg-i 

 ment, or with none at all. Is it the novelty then t 

 No ; not altogether, and probably not at all ; for in 

 that case, we would surely best remember the great- 

 est novelty ; and that unquestionably is the first sight 

 we get of the world. 



The reason why we remember cannot be explained 

 by the individual things that we remember ; and as 

 little can it be owing to any act of the mind, con- 

 sidered as such. Where then shall we seek for it ? 

 We shall best answer that question by putting 

 another, and pausing to weigh it well before we 

 answer it. How came we by all that we think and 

 know, or by all that we can think *? The answer to 

 that question, if the right one, will show us where 

 the mine of knowledge is, and how that mine can 

 be worked ; and if we know these, no matter how 

 small our present stock of knowledge may be, we 

 shall soon and easily obtain more as much more as 

 we please. 



That is a very simple question, a question the 

 answer to which requires no philosophy, no learn- 

 ing, no reading, nay not even the faculty of speech ; 

 and yet that question is the seal upon all the possi- 

 ble knowledge of which we are not in possession ; 

 and many of us live long and go down to our graves 

 in ignorance merely because we do not see, orj 

 seeing, will not take the trouble to break that seal. 

 That truth is so very important that we must dwell 



