HOW TO SEE AND REMEMBER 



duced great minds. Then it is a positive boon to have 

 a man appear now and then like the one who applied for 

 the position of interpreter in New York recently, who 

 can speak nine languages fluently, and has not general 

 mental capacity enough to learn to write even in one 

 language. 



Or looking at the matter from a slightly different 

 aspect, it is pleasing to consider the mnemonic deficien- 

 cies of some men of confessedly great mentality. The 

 matchless Newton, we are assured, after working out an 

 elaborate mathematical calculation, could not remember 

 how he had accomplished it. And Huxley is reported 

 to have said that he had no verbal memory, and could 

 not repeat half a dozen quotations of any kind verbatim. 



After considering such seemingly contradictory phases 

 of the subject, one naturally feels doubtful as to the 

 status of memory, and is not certain whether to deplore 

 or rejoice over the fact that his own memory is defective. 

 The key to the situation is found in the fact that very 

 few people have ever developed their memories to the 

 extent of knowing their real capacity. 



Undoubtedly some people are endowed with "nat- 

 ural" memories, but it is just as certain that very few 

 people ever give their memories a fair chance, especially 

 in this age of newspapers and many books. 



The great mass of what we read and hear we do not 

 expect, indeed do not desire, to remember. What 

 could be more horrible to contemplate than the state 

 of mind of a man who should remember all that he has 

 read in the daily paper for a single year? The very 

 plethora of subjects drives us into slip-shod methods of 



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