76 M E M 
of the Almighty that gives me'this underftanding. Me¬ 
mory, he fays, is always accompanied with the belief of that 
which we remember; and this belief we account real 
knowledge, no lefs certain than if it were grounded on 
demonftration. The tellimony of witneffes, in caufes of 
life and death, depends upon it; and all the knowledge 
of mankind, with regard to paft events, is built on this 
foundation. Reid on the Intellectual Powers, Elf. iii 
cli. i, 2, 7- 
When w£ remember with little or no effort, it is called 
remembrance, fimply, or pa [jive memory. When we en¬ 
deavour to remember what does not immediately (and 
as it were) of itfelf occur, it is called aCtive memory, or 
recolleClion. A ready recollection of our knowledge, at 
the moment when we have occafion for it, is a talent 
of the greateft importance. The man poffefled of it feldoni 
fails to diftinguifti himfelf in whatever fort of bufinefs he 
may be engaged. It is indeed evident, that, when the 
ower of retention is weak, all attempts at eminence of 
nowledge muft be vain ; for memory is the primary and 
fundamental power, without which there could be no 
other intellectual operation. Judgment and ratiocina¬ 
tion fuppole fomething already known, and draw their 
decifions only from experience. Imagination feleCts 
ideas from the treafures of remembrance, and produces 
novelty only by varied combinations. We do not even 
form conjectures of diltant, or anticipations of future, 
events, but by concluding what is pofiible from what is 
pall. 
Of a faculty fo important, many rules ha*e been given 
for the regulation and improvement; of which the frit 
is, that he who wifhes to have a clear and diftinCt remem¬ 
brance, fliould be temperate with refpeCt to eating, drink¬ 
ing, and fleep. The memory depends very much upon 
the Hate of the brain ; and therefore whatever is hurtful 
to the latter, muft be prejudicial to the former. Too 
much deep clouds the brain, and too little overheats it; 
therefore either of thefe extremes muft of courfe hurt the 
memory, and ought carefully to be avoided. Intempe¬ 
rance of all kinds, and excels of padion, have the fame ill 
effeCts ; fo that we rarely meet with an intemperate perfon 
whofe memory is at once clear and tenacious. 
The livelieft remembrance is not fo vivid as the fenfa- 
tion that produced it; and ideas of memory do often, 
but not always, decay more and more, as the original 
fenfation becomes more and more remote in time. Thofe 
fenfations and thofe thoughts have a chance to be long 
remembered which are lively at firft; and thofe are likely 
to be moft lively which are mod: attended to, or which 
are accompanied with pleafure or pain, with wonder, 
furprife, curiofity, merriment, and other lively paftions. 
The art of memory, therefore, is little more than the art 
of attention. What we wilh to remember we fhouid 
attend to, fo as to underhand it perfedtly, fixing our view 
particularly upon its importance or fingular nature, that 
it may raile within us fome of the paftions above men¬ 
tioned. We fliould alfo difengage our minds from all 
other things, that we may attend more effectually to the 
objeCt which we wilh to remember. No man will read 
with much advantage who is not able at pleafure to 
evacuate his mind, or who brings not to his author an 
intellect defecated and pure, neither turbid with care, nor 
agitated with pleafure. If the repofitories of thought 
are already full, what can they receive ? If the mind is 
employed on the paft or the future, the book will be held 
before the eyes in vain. 
Our thoughts have for the moft part a connection ; fo 
that the. thought which is juft now in the mind, depends 
partly upon that which went befoye, and partly ferves to 
introduce that which follows. Hence we remember belt 
thofe things of which the parts are methodically difpofed 
and mutually connected. A regular difeourie makes a 
more lafting impreftion upon the hearer than a parcel of 
detached fentences, and gives to his rational powers a 
jpiore Salutary exercife : and this may ftrovv us the pro- 
05 R Y. 
priety of conducting our ftudies, and all our affairs, 
according to a regular plan or method. When this is 
not done, our thoughts and our bufinefs, elpecially if in. 
any degree complex, foon run into confufion. 
As the mind is not at all times equally difpofed for 
the exercife of this faculty, fuch feafons fliould be made 
choice of as are moft proper for it. The mind is feldoni 
fit for attention prefently after meals ; and to call off the 
fpirits at fuch times from their proper employment 
in digeltion, is apt to cloud the brain, and prejudice the 
health- Both the mind and body fliould be eafy and 
undifturbed when we engage in this exercife, and there¬ 
fore retirement is moft fit for it: and the evening, juft 
before we go to reft, is generally recommended as a very 
convenient feafon, both from the ftilinefs of the night, 
and becaufe the impreflions will then have a longer time 
to fettle before they come to be difturbed by the acceflion 
of others proceeding from external objeCts; and to call 
over in the morning what has been committed to the 
memory overnight, muft, for the fame reafon, be very 
ferviceable. For, to review thofe ideas while they con¬ 
tinue frefti upon the mind, and unmixed with any others, 
muft necefl’arily imprint them more deeply. 
Ben Jonfon has afforded us an account of me¬ 
mory, which is quoted with great approbation by Mr. 
Haflam, in his Obfervations on Madnefs. “ Memory, of 
all the powers of the mind, is the moft delicate and frail t 
it is the firft of our faculties that age invades. Seneca, 
the father, the rhetorician, confefleth of himfelf, he 
had a miraculous one, not only to receive, but to hold. 
I myfelf could, in my youth, have repeated all that ever 
I had made, and fo continued till I was paft forty ; fince, 
it is much decayed In me. Yet I can repeat whole books 
that I have read, and poems of fome feleCted friends 
which I have lik’d to charge my memory with. It was 
wont to be faithful to me, but, lhaken with age now, and 
floth (which weakens the ftrongeft abilities), it may 
perform fomewhat, but cannot promife much. By exer¬ 
cife it is to be made better and ferviceable. Whatfoever- 
I pawn’d with it while I was young and a boy, it offers m& 
readily, and without flops: but what I truft to it now, 
or have done of later years, it lays up more negligently, 
and fometimes lofes; fo that I receive mine own (though 
frequently called for) as if it were new and borrow’d. 
Nor do I always find prefently from it what I do feek; 
but, while I am doing another thing, that I laboured 
for will come ; and what I fought with trouble will offer 
itfelf when I am quiet. Now in fome men I have found 
it as happy as nature, who, whatfoever they read or pen, 
they can fay without book prefently; as if they did then 
write in their mind. And it is more a wonder in fuch as 
have a fwiftftyle, for their memories are commonly flowed:; 
fuch as torture their writings, and go into council for 
every word, muft needs fix fomewhat, and make it their 
own at lafi, though 'out through their own vexation.” 
Difcoveries, vol. vi. 
Memory differs in different ages, infomuch that chil¬ 
dren foon learn and foon forget; old people learn with 
difficulty, and remember belt what they learned when 
young. Senlations, attended with great pleafure or pain, 
make a deep impreftion on the memory, which is probably 
owing to the vigorous vibrations which they excite. 
Senfible ideas gradually decay in the memory, if not re- 
frefhed by new fenfations. Voluntary recollection is 
performed by calling up aflociated ideas, which by degrees 
introduce the idea in queftion. Some perfons of weak 
judgment poflefs retentive memories ; but there are li¬ 
mits beyond which the two powers of receiving and of 
retaining ideas cannot confift with each other. Memory 
is a faculty inceflantly exercifed while thought continues; 
nof is the mind wholly deprived of it, though it is often 
much impaired. The excellence of memory confifts partly 
in its ftrength of retention, and partly in the quicknefs 
of recolleClion. All the faculties of the mind are de¬ 
pendent on .the memory; and, though lome perfons may 
have 
