662 PSYCHOLOGY. 



frequently one will be reminded of it, the more avenues ol 

 approach to it one will possess. In mental terms, th^ more 

 other facts a fact is associated tvith in the mind, the better pos- 

 session of it our memory retains. Each of its associates be- 

 comes a hook to which it hangs, a means to fish it up by 

 when sunk beneath the surface. Together, they form a 

 network of attachments by which it is woven into the 

 entire tissue of our thought. The * secret of a good mem- 

 ory ' is thus the secret of forming diverse and multiple 

 associations with every fact we care to retain. But this 

 forming of associations Mitli a fact, what is it but thinHng 

 about tlie fact as much as possible i Briefly, then, of two 

 men with the same outward experiences and the same 

 amount of mere native tenacity, the owe ivho thinks over his 

 experiences most, and weaves them into systematic rela- 

 tions with each other, will be the one ivith the best mem- 

 ory. We see examples of this on every hand. Most men 

 have a good memor}- for facts connected with their own 

 pursuits. The college athlete who remains a dunce at his 

 books will astonish you by his knowledge of men's * records ' 

 in various feats and games, and will be a walking diction- 

 ary of sporting statistics. The reason is that he is con- 

 stantly going over these things in his mind, and comparing 

 and making series of them. They form for him not so 

 many odd facts, but a concept-system — so the}- stick. So the 

 merchant remembers prices, the politician other j)oliticians' 

 speeches and votes, with a copiousness which amazes out- 

 siders, but which the amount of thinking they bestow on 

 these subjects easily explains. The great memory for facts 

 which a Darwin and a Spencer reveal in their books is not 

 incompatible with the possession on their part of a brain 

 with only a middling degree of physiological retentiveness. 

 Let a man early in life set himself the task of verifying 

 such a theory as that of evolution, and facts will soon 

 cluster and cling to him like grapes to their stem. Their 

 relations to the theory- will hold them fast ; and the more 

 of these the mind is able to discern, the greater the erudition 

 will become. Meanwhile the theorist may have little, if 

 any, desultory memory. Unutilizable facts may be unnoted 

 by him and forgotten as soon as heard. An ignorance 



