334 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



occasion to resume the study of a part of the subject, in order to reply 

 to some questions which had been asked me. Greatly to my annoy- 

 ance, I found that I had apparently lost my grasp of it. The relations 

 involved seemed more complex than they had before appeared to me ; 

 and I should there and then have dismissed the subject (not having 

 leisure for mere mental experiments) with the feeling that my strength 

 for mathematical inquiries had diminished. But the subject chanced 

 to be one that I could not dismiss, for, though the questions directed 

 to me might have been left unanswered, the time had come which I 

 had assigned to myself (under certain eventualities then realized) for a 

 complete restatement of my views, enforced and reiterated in every 

 possible way, until a certain course depending upon them should have 

 been adopted, or else the discussion of the matter rendered useless by 

 lapse of time. I soon found, after resuming my study of the subject, 

 that it was far more completely within my grasp than before — in fact, 

 on reacquiring my knowledge of its details, the problems involved 

 appeared to me as mere mathematical child's-play. 



The great difficulty in judging of the growth and development of 

 the mind consists in the want of any reliable measure of mental 

 strength — any mental dynamometer, so to speak. Our competitive 

 examinations are attempts in this direction, but very imperfect ones, 

 as experience has long since shown. Neither acquired knowledge, nor 

 the power of acquiring knowledge, is any true measure of mental 

 strength. The power of solving mathematical problems is not neces- 

 sarily indicative even of mathematical power, far less of general mental 

 power. The ordinary tests of classical knowledge, again, have little 

 real relation to mental strength. It may be urged that our most emi- 

 nent men have, for the most part, been distinguished, at school or uni- 

 versity, by either mathematical or classical knowledge, or both. This 

 is doubtless true; but so it would be the case that they would have 

 distinguished themselves above their fellows at public school or uni- 

 versity if the heads of these establishments had in their wisdom set 

 Chinese puzzling as the primary test of merit. The powerful mind 

 will show its superiority (in general) in any task that may be assigned 

 it ; and, if the test of distinction is to be the skillful construction of 

 Greek and Latin verse, or readiness in treating mathematical problems, 

 a youth of good powers, unless he be wanting in ambition, will acquire 

 the necessary qualifications even though he has no special taste for 

 classical or mathematical learning, and is even perfectly assured that 

 in after-life he will never pen a sapphic or set down an equation of 

 motion. 



In passing, I may note that nearly all our attempted measurements 

 of mind depend too much on tests of memory. It is not recognized 

 sufficiently that the part which memory plays in the workings of a 

 powerful mind is subordinate. A good memory is a very useful ser- 

 vant ; nothing more. In the really difficult mental processes, memory — 



