666 PSYCIIOLOG 7. 



told rae I must train my memory. So when I came home that nighi, 1 

 sat down alone and spent fifteen minutes trying silently to recall with 

 accuracy the principal events of the day. I could remember but little 

 at first; now I remember that I could not then recall what I had for 

 breakfast. After a few days' practice I found I could recall more. 

 Events came back to me more minutely, more accurately, and move 

 vividly than at first. After a fortnight or so of this, Catherine said, 

 ' Why don't you relate to me the events of the day, instead of recalling 

 them to yourself ? It would be interesting, and my interest in it would 

 be a stimulus to you.' Having great respect for my wife's opinion, I 

 began a habit of oral confession, as it were, which was continued for 

 almost fifty years. Every night, the last thing before retiring, I told 

 her everything I could remember that had happened to me or about me 

 during the day. I generally recalled the dishes I had had for break- 

 fast, dinner, and tea; the people I had seen and what they had said; 

 the editorials I had written for my paper, giving her a brief abstract of 

 them. I mentioned all the letters I had sent and received, and the very 

 language used, as nearly as possible; when I had walked or ridden — 1 

 told her everything that had come within my observation, I found I 

 could say my lessons better and better every year, and instead of the 

 practice growing irksome, it became a pleasure to go over again the 

 events of the day. I am indebted to this discipline for a memory of 

 somewhat unusual tenacity, and I recommend the practice to all who wish 

 to store up facts, or expect to have much to do with influencing men." '' 



I do not doubt that Mr. Weed's practical command 

 of liis past experiences was much greater after fifty years 

 of this heroic drill than it would have been without it. 

 Expecting to give his account in the evening, he attended 

 better to each incident of the day, named and conceived it 

 differently, set his mind upon it, and in the evening went 

 over it again. He did more thinking about it, and it stayed 

 with him in consequence. But I venture to afiirm pretty 

 confidently (although I know how foolish it often is to deny 

 a fact on the strength of a theory) that the same matter, 

 casually attended to and not thought about, would have stuck 

 in his memory no better at the end than at the beginning 

 of his years of heroic self-discipline. He had acquired a 

 better method of noting and recording his experiences, but 

 his physiological retentiveness was probably not a bit im- 

 proved.! 



* Op. cit. p. 100. 



f In order to test the opinion so confidently expressed in the text, I have 

 tried to see whether a certain amount of daily training in learning poetry 



