1 ACUl/HES OF Till: MIND. 219 



with which they have been recalled. But there are some 

 ideas which can be recalled with difficulty, whatever 

 exertions we may have made originally to render them per- 

 manent. Thus, the perceptions of sight and touch are 

 more readily recollected than those of sound, taste or smell. 

 In the latter, we seldom can recall a distinct idea ; but, 

 in the attempt, rest frequently satisfied with the recollection 

 of the symbols by which it is designated. 



In comparing objects with one another, we employ the 

 powers of attention and memory in conjunction. Having, 

 by means of attention, fixed the mind on one object, we 

 can then turn it to another : the memory preserves the im- 

 pressions which the former produced, so as to compare 

 these with the qualities of the latter. 



This faculty of memory is essentially requisite to our 

 attainment of knowledge. Without it our intellectual im- 

 provement would be confined within very narrow limits. 

 It exhibits itself in various degrees of excellence in different 

 individuals, partly the result of constitutional arrangements, 

 and partly of habit. In all cases its various properties are 

 improved by exercise. 



The existence of the faculty of memory in the lower ani- 

 mals, can scarcely be doubted, as instances daily occur of 

 its display in our domestic quadrupeds, as the elephant, 

 horse, and dog *. It is likewise exhibited by birds. We 



* In illustration of the extent of the memory of the elephant, Mr CORSE, 

 in his valuable observations on the natural history of that animal, states the 

 following circumstances, to which he was an eye-witness : " In' June 1787, 

 Fattra Munqul, a male elephant, taken the year before, was travelling, in 

 company with other elephants, towards Chittigong, laden with a tent and 

 some baggage for our accommodation on the journey. Having come upon a 

 tiger's track, which elephants discover readily by the smell, he took fright, 

 and ran off to the woods, in spite of the efforts of his driver. On entering 

 the wood, the driver saved himself, by springing from the elephant, and 



