FOUNDATION OF MEMORY. 23 



tensive that we can make it, always the better. 

 Truth the agreement of the relation with the na- 

 ture of the subjects to which we apply it, can be 

 ascertained only by observing the fact that it is so ; 

 and, therefore, by having the test of observation 

 always ready, we elicit valuable thought, and 

 get rid of much useless thought altogether. 



Besides, as we remember thoughts only from 

 their connexion with what we have observed, or 

 could observe if we were in the right place at the 

 proper time, it follows that the results of our ob- 

 servations are not only the most easily remem- 

 bered of all thoughts, but they are, as it were, 

 " nails in sure places," to hang the rest upon. 

 If a story, or an abstract truth, or any matter of 

 that kind, be told when one first visits the sea, 

 or a mountain top, or any place that is calculated 

 to make a strong impression on the senses, it is 

 rarely, if ever, forgotten. The old practice of 

 whipping all the children of the manor at the 

 march-stones, or on perambulating the boundaries, 

 though both a little ludicrous and a little cruel, 

 was a very certain way of getting witnesses to the 

 identity of the stone. Men never forget those les- 

 sons for which they were whipt at school. That 

 may not be the best, and it is certainly not the 

 most pleasant way of " hammering things down 

 on the memory ;" but an impression on the senses, 

 something that can be observed, and observed 

 with pleasure, not with irritation, is highly de- 

 sirable. 



How often do we, because we want the test of 

 observation, treat the unknown and the absurd as 

 if they were true. That is not done from any 

 imperfection in the act of judging : for ignorant 



