PHILOSOPHY, MENTAL. 
cases be for Illiterate persons who have fre- 
quently changed their employments, to re- 
fer such changes to any specific dates, will 
not feel unwilling to admit, that the pre- 
sumption formed against the reputed mur- 
derers of Steele, in consequence of their in- 
correct statements as to their places of em- 
ployment four years before their trial, 
should have weighed very little in the deci- 
sion against those unhappy men. 
111. We distinguish a new place, per- 
son, &c. from one which we remember in a 
manner similar to that in which we distin- 
guish between I’ecollected ideas and ihose^ 
of imagination ; by the greater vividness ot 
the impression, and the strength and readi- 
ness of the associated circumstances. .If we 
doubt whether we have before seen a per- 
son who is newly introduced to us, we try 
to recal some associated circumstance, such 
as the time and place where we may be sup- 
posed to have seen him ; and if this prove 
erroneous, we immediately infer that our 
doubt arises from some resemblance which 
he has with some one whom we then or 
there saw, or with some one whose face is 
familiar to us. 
112. The memory of children is imper- 
fect, because the elementary rudiments of 
memory are not sufficiently fixed by the 
retentive power, nor their usual groups suf- 
ficiently formed in the mind. They are 
also imperfect in the use of those words and 
other symbols which so materially aid the 
recollection; and in particular they are 
found very deficient in arranging facts in the 
order of time, judging most frequently from 
the vividness of tlieir recollections, and not 
having the use of those denotements of 
time, on which the memory principally de- 
pends for accuracy in this branch of recol- 
lection. In old persons, whatever be the 
part of the system on which the retentive 
power depends, that power is most mate- 
rially diminished, as also the sensitive 
power, while the associative power has, in 
their habitual direction of it, been strength- 
ened in its operations. Hence new im- 
pressions can scarcely be received, and sel- 
dom are retained; while the parts which 
are received and retained excite old trains 
of associations rather than continue those 
which were recently impressed. When old 
persons relate the incidents of their youth 
with great precision, it is rather owing to 
the recollection of many preceding recol- 
lections and relations, than to the recollec- 
tion of the thing itself. 
113. Memory depends greatly upon the 
state of the brain. Concussions, and other 
disorders of the brain, and the use of spiri- 
tuous liquors, impair it : and it is recovered 
by degrees as the causes which atfected 
the brain are removed. In like manner 
dreams, which happen in a peculiar state of 
the brain, viz. during sleep, vanish as soon 
as vigilance, a different state, takes place ; 
but if they be recollected immediately 
upon waking, and thus connected with a 
state of vigilance, they may be remem- 
bered. , 
114. When a person desires to recollect 
a thing that iias escaped him, suppose the 
name of a visible object, he recals the vi- 
sible idea, or some other associate, again 
and again by a voluntary power, and thus 
at last brings in the required association 
and idea. But if tiie desire be very great, 
it changes the state of the brain, and has ati 
opposite effect, so that the desired idea 
does not recur till all has subsided, perhaps 
not even then. 
116. The excellence of memory consists 
partly in its strength and accuracy of reten- 
tion, partly in the readiness of recollection. 
The former principally depends on the 
strength and accuracy of perception in at- 
tention to our sensations, and pArtly upon 
the associative faculty ; the latter depends 
entirely upon the strength and peculiar 
biases of the operations of that power. The 
intellectual faculties depend greatly upon 
the memory : hence though some persons 
may have strong memories with weak 
judgments, yet no man can have a strong 
judgment with a weak original power of 
retaining and remembering. — Before we 
conclude our view of this faculty, we beg 
leave strongly to recommend to our younger 
readers, especially if they possess a philoso- 
phic cast of mind, an- attentive perusal of 
the very useful and interesting chapter of 
Dngald Stewart on this subject, particularly 
those parts which relate to the improve- 
ment of the memory. 
CONCEPTION. 
116. We have mentioned this as one of 
the secondary faculties of the mind, because 
it is considered as a distinct faculty by Mr. 
Stewart, whose authority we in many cases 
respect ; and who we suppose has in this in- 
stance produced, in many of his admirers, 
a belief in the justness of his statements, 
which we think far from well founded. We 
shall have an opportunity of stating our 
opinion respecting it under the next head, 
