MEMORY. 661 



But there comes a time of life for all of us when we can 

 do no more than hold our own in the way of acquisitions, 

 when the old j)aths fade as fast as the new ones form in our 

 brain, and when we forget in a week quite as much as we 

 can learn in the same space of time. This equilibrium may 

 last many, many years. In extreme old age it is upset in the 

 reverse direction, and forgetting prevails over acquisition, 

 or rather there is no acquisition. Brain-paths are so tran- 

 sient that in the course of a few minutes of conversation the 

 same question is asked and its answer forgotten half a dozen 

 times. Then the superior tenacity of the paths formed in 

 childhood becomes manifest : the dotard will retrace the 

 facts of his earlier years after he has lost all those of later 

 date. 



So much for the permanence of the paths. Now for 

 their number. 



It is obvious that the more there are of such paths as 

 M — N in the brain, and the more of such possible cues or 

 occasions for the recall of n in the mind, the prompter and 

 surer, on the whole, the memory of n Avill be, the more 



fallen for forty-two years past, and also the kind of weather it was, and 

 what he was doing on each of more than fifteen thousand days. Pity that 

 such a magnificent faculty as this could not have found more worthy appli- 

 cation ! 



What these cases show is that the mere organic retentiveness of a man 

 need bear no definite relation to his other mental powers. Men of the 

 highest general powers will often forget nothing, however insignificant. 

 One of the most generally accomplished men I know has a memory of this 

 sort. He never keeps written note of anything, yet is never at a lo.ss for a 

 fact which he has once heard. He remembers the old addresses of all his 

 New York friends, living in numbered streets, addresses which they them- 

 selves have long since moved away from and forgotten. He says that lie 

 should probably recognize an individual fly, if he had seen him thirty 

 years previous — he is, by the way, an entomologist. As an instance of his 

 desultory memory, he was introduced to a certain colonel at a club. The 

 conversation fell upon the signs of age in man. The colonel challenged 

 him to estimate his age. He looked at him, and gave the exact day of his 

 birth, to the wonder of all. But the secret of this accuracy was that, having 

 picked up some days previously an army-register, he had idly turned over 

 its list of names, with dates of birth, graduation, promotions, etc., attached, 

 and when the colonel's name was mentioned to him at the club, these 

 figures, on which he had not ])estowe(l a moment's thought, involuntarily 

 surged up in his mind. Such a memory is of course a priceless boon. 



