670 PSYCIIOLOOT. 



chiklisli reminiscences have been wrouglit into us during 

 the retrospective liours of our entire intervening life. Other 

 things equal, at all times of life recency promotes memory. 

 The only exception I can think of is the unaccountable 

 memory of certain moments of our childhood, api^arently 

 net fitted by their intrinsic interest to survive, but which are 

 perhaps the only incidents we can remember out of the 

 year in which they occurred. Everybody probably has 

 isolated glimpses of certain hours of his nursery life, the 

 position in which he stood or sat, the light of the room, 

 what his father or mother said, etc. These moments so 

 oddly selected for immunity from the tooth of time proba- 

 bly owe their good fortune to historical peculiarities which 

 it is now impossible to trace. Very likely we were re- 

 minded of them again soon after they occurred ; that be- 

 came a reason why we should again recollect them, etc., 

 so that at last they became ingrained. 



The attention which we lend to an experience is propor- 

 tional to its vivid or interesting character ; and it is a no- 

 torious fact that what interests us most vividly at the time 

 is, other things equal, what we remember best. An impres- 

 sion may be so exciting emotionally as almost fo leave a 

 scar upon the cerebral tissues ; and thus originates a path- 

 ological delusion. "A woman attacked by robbers takes 

 all the men whom she sees, even her ow^n son, for brigands 

 bent on killing her. Another woman sees her child run 

 over by a horse ; no amount of reasoning, not even the sight 

 of the living child, Avill persuade her that he is not killed. 

 A woman called ' thief ' in a dispute remains couAanced that 

 every one accuses her of stealing (Esquirol). Another, at- 

 tacked with mania at the sight of the fires in her street 

 during the Commune, still after six months sees in her de- 

 lirium flames on every side about her (Luys), etc., etc." * 



On the general eft'ectiveness of both attention and repe- 

 tition I cannot do better than copy what M. Taine has 

 written : 



" If we compare different sensations, imao:es, or ideas, we find that 

 their antitudes for revival are not equal. A large number of them are 



* Paulhan, L'Activite mental, et les Elements de I'Esprit (1880), p. 70. 



