PHILOSOPHY, MENTAL. 



strength and readiness of the associated 

 circumstances. If we doubt whether we 

 have before seen a person who is newly 

 introduced to us, we try to recal some 

 associated circumstance, such as the time 

 and place where we may be supposed to 

 have seen him ; and if this prove errone- 

 ous, we immediately infer that our doubt 

 arises from some resemblance which he 

 has with some one whom we then or there 

 saw,, or with some one whose face is fa- 

 miliar to us. 



112. The memory of children is imper- 

 fect, because the elementary rudiments of 

 memory are not sufficiently fixed by the 

 retentive power, nor their usual groups 

 sufficiently formed in the mind. They 

 are also imperfect in the use of those 

 words and other symbols which so mate- 

 rially aid the recollection ; and in par- 

 ticular they are found very deficient in 

 arranging facts in the order of time, 

 judging most frequently from the vivid- 

 ness of their recollections, and not hav- 

 ing the use of those denotements of time, 

 on which the memory principally de- 

 pends for accuracy in this branch of recol- 

 lection. In old persons, whatever be the 

 part of the system on which the reten- 

 tive power depends, that power is most 

 materially diminished, as also the sensi- 

 tive power, while the associative power 

 has, in their habitual direction of it, been 

 strengthened in its operations. Hence 

 new impressions can scarcely be receiv- 

 ed, and seldom are retained ; while the 

 parts which are received and retained 

 excite old trains of associations, rather 

 than continue those which were recently 

 impressed. When old persons relate the 

 incidents of their youth with great pre- 

 cision, it is rather owing to the recollec- 

 tion of many preceding recollections and 

 relations, than to the recollection of 

 the thing itself. 



113. Memory depends greatly upon the 

 state of the brain. Concussions, and 

 other disorders of the brain, and the use 

 of spirituous liquors, impair it : and it is 

 recovered by degrees,as the causes which 

 affected the brain are removed. In like 

 manner dreams, which happen in a pecu- 

 liar state of the brain, viz. during sleep, 

 vanish as soon as vigilance, a different 

 state, takes place ; but if they be recol- 

 lected immediately upon waking, and thus 

 connected with a state of vigilance, they 

 may be remembered. 



114. When a person desires to recol- 

 lect a thing that has escaped him, sup- 

 pose the name of a visible object, he re- 

 cals the visible idea, or some other asso- 



ciate, again and again > by a voluntary pow- 

 er, and thus at last brings in the required 

 association and idea. But if the desire 

 be very great, it changes the state of the 

 brain, and has an opposite effect, so that 

 the desired idea does not recur till allhaa 

 subsided, perhaps not even then. 



115. The excellence of memory con- 

 sists partly in its strength and accuracy 

 of retention, partly in the readiness of 

 recollection. The former principally 

 depends on the strength and accuracy 

 of perception in attention to our sen- 

 sations, and partly upon the associative 

 faculty ; the latter depends entirely up- 

 on the strength and peculiar biases _ of 

 the operations of that power. The in- 

 tellectual faculties depend greatly up- 

 on the memory : hence, though some 

 persons may have strong memories with 

 weak judgments, yet no man can have a 

 strong judgment with a weak original 

 power of retaining and remembering. Be- 

 fore we conclude our view of this faculty, 

 we beg leave strongly to recommend to 

 our younger readers, especially if they 

 possess a philosophic cast of mind, an at- 

 tentive perusal of the very useful and in- 

 teresting 1 chapter of Dugald Stewart on 

 this subject, particularly those parts which 

 relate to the improvement of the memo- 

 ry. 



CONCEPTION. 



116. We have mentioned this as one 

 of the secondary faculties of the mind, 

 because it is considered as a distinct facul- 

 ty by Mr. Stewart, whose authority we in 

 many cases respect; and who we sup- 

 pose has in this instance produced, in 

 many of his admirers, a belief in the just- 

 ness of his statements, which we think 

 far from well founded. We shall have 

 an opportunity of stating our opinion re- 

 specting it under the next head, and 

 shall therefore decline enlarging upon it 

 here. 



ATTENTION, ABSTRACTION, AND GE- 

 NERA I.1Z.ATION. 



lir. By investigating the phenomena 

 of mind at a time when we have formed a 

 connection between volition and certain 

 mental states or operations, we are re- 

 peatedly led to consider those states or 

 operations, however passive the mind 

 might originally have been, as totally, and 

 in their own nature voluntary. This is 

 remarkably the case with that state of 

 mind which we call attention. That this 

 is in young children entirely involuntary. 



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