II. 



MEMORY. 



Of all the wonderful miracles of nature, an- 

 imate and inanimate, there is perhaps none so 

 perfectly and inscrutably marvellous as the hu- 

 man memory. We do not now refer to the 

 specially cultivated and trained memories of ex- 

 ceptional geniuses, the Mezzofantis who can speak 

 two hundred languages, or the Macaulays who 

 can repeat by heart whole pages and volumes of 

 prose or poetry; we are thinking merely of the 

 common average human being, the Tom, Dick, 

 and Harry that we meet at every turn, and whose 

 simple native power of recollection and remi- 

 niscence seems to us almost the very greatest 

 marvel in the whole vast museum of the physical 

 universe. For even the humblest and most or- 

 dinary memory is stored and stocked in all its 

 innumerable cells and pigeon-holes with such an 

 endless collection of facts and ideas as might well 

 appall the stout heart of the most ardent statis- 

 tician. Indeed it is probable that most people, 

 for want of analytical habits, immensely under- 

 estimate the extraordinary storehouse of their 



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