M E M 
larire ftrong memories with weak judgment, no perfon 
can have a ft'rong judgment whofe memory is remarkably 
defedlive. “ It is commonly fuppofed,” fays profefl’or 
Dugald Stewart, “ that genius is feldom united with a 
very tenacious memory. So far, however, as my own obfer- 
vation has reached, I can lcarcely recoiled: one perfon 
who pofleffes the former of thefe qualities, without a more 
than ordinary (hare of the latter. On a fuperficial view 
of the lubject, indeed, the common opinion has fome 
appearance of truth; for we are naturally led, in confe- 
quence of the topics about which converfation is ufually 
employed, to eftimate the extent of memory by the im- 
preflion which trivial occurrences make upon it; and 
thefe in general efcape the recolledion of a man of 
ability, not becaufe he is unable to retain them, but 
becaufe he does not attend to them. It is probable, 
likewife, that accidental affociations, founded on con¬ 
tiguity in time and place, may make but a (light impref- 
fion on his mind. But it does not theretore follow, that 
his flock of fads is (mall. They are conneded together 
in his memory by principles of affociation, different from 
thofe which prevail in ordinary minds, and they are on 
that very account the more ufeful; for, as the affociations 
are founded upon real connedions among the ideas, (al¬ 
though they may be iels conducive to the fluency, and 
perhaps to the wit, of converfation,) they are of incom¬ 
parably greater ufe in fuggefting fads which are to ferve 
as a foundation for reafoning or invention. Montaigne 
frequently complains in his writings of his want of me¬ 
mory : and he indeed gives many very extraordinary 
inftances of his ignorance in fome of the mod ordinary 
topics of information. But, it is obvious to any one who 
reads his works with attention, that this ignorance did 
not proceed from an original defed of memory, but from 
the lingular or whimfical diredion which his curiofityhad 
taken at an early period of life. ‘ I can do nothing,’ fays 
he, ! without my memorandum book ; and fo great is my 
difficulty in remembering proper names, that I am forced 
to call my domeilic fervants by their offices. I am ig¬ 
norant of the greater part of our coins in ufe : of the dif¬ 
ference of one grain from another, both in the earth and 
in the granary; what ufe leaven is of in making bread ; 
and why wine muff (land fome time in the vat before 
it ferments.’ Yet the fame author appears evidently, 
from his writings, to have had his memory ilored with an 
infinite variety of-apophthegms and of hiftorical pafl’ages, 
which had .(truck his imagination : and to have been fa¬ 
miliarly acquainted, not only with the names, but w-ith 
the abiurd and exploded opinions, of the ancient philo- 
fophers.” The foregoing obfervations ferve to account, 
in part, for the origin of the common opinion, that ge¬ 
nius and memory are feldom united in great degrees in 
the fame perfon ; and it alfo appears, that fome of the 
faffs, on which that opinion is founded, do not jultify 
fuch a conclufion. There are, however, other circum- 
jftances, that feem rather to indicate an inconfiffency be¬ 
tween extenlive memory and original genius. The fpe- 
cies of memory which excites the greateft degree of ad¬ 
miration in the ordinary intercourle of fociety, is a me¬ 
mory for detached and infulated facts; and it is certain 
that thofe men who are poffeflbd of it, are very feldom 
diftinguilhed by the higher gifts of the mind; and fuch a 
fpecies of memory is unfavourable to philosophical ar¬ 
rangement, becaule it in part (applies the place of ar¬ 
rangement. “ A man of original genius,” fays Pro- 
feflor Stewart, “ who is ffontl of exercifing his reafoning 
powers anew on every point as it occurs to him, and who 
cannot fubmit to reliearie the ideas of others, or to re¬ 
peat by rote the conclufions which he has deduced from 
previous reflexion, often appears to fuperficial obfervers 
to fall below the level of ordinary underftandings ; while 
another, dellitute both of quicknefs and invention, is 
admired for that promptitude in his declfions which 
arifes from the inferiority of his intellectual abilities.” 
Here we cannot. forbear citing one of the aphorllins of 
Vol. XV. No. 107.5. 
o k y: 77 
lord Bacon: “ Reading makes a full man, writing a 
correCl man, and fpeaking a ready man.” See alfo on 
this fubjeCl, Watts’s Improvement of the Mind, chap, 
xvii. 
Hiftory furniflies us with feveral furprifing inftances of 
the retentive powers of the faculty of memory. Seneca 
fays of himfelf, that, by the mere effort of his natural 
memory, he was able to repeat two thoufand words upon 
once hearing them, each in its order; though they had 
no dependence or connection on each other. After which 
he mentions a friend of his, Portius Latro, w-ho retained 
in his memory all the declamations he had ever lpoken, 
and never found his memory fail him, even in a (ingle 
word. He alfo mentions Cyneas, ambaffador to the Ro¬ 
mans from king Pyrrhus, who, in one day, had fo well 
learnt the names of his (pe&ators, that the next he fa- 
luted the whole lenate, and all the populace aflembled, 
each by bis name. Pliny lays, that Cyrus knew every 
foldier in his army by name ; and L. Scipio, all the people 
of Rome. Charmipas, or rather Carneaaes, when re¬ 
quired, it is faid, would repeat any volume found in the 
libraries as readily as if he were reading. Berthecus de¬ 
clares that he wrote his Comment upon Claudian with¬ 
out confulting the text, by the 1* rip of his memory alone. 
Lipfius remembered the whole hillory of Tacitus, and 
pledged himfelf to recite it word by word, or any paf- 
fage that might be required. Francis Suarez could re¬ 
peat all St. Auguftine’s works by heart, alleging parti¬ 
cular lines and words, with the volume and page in which 
they occurred. Magliabecchi had a furprifing memory. 
A gentleman who wilhed to try it, lent him a MS. which 
he was going to print, and loon after it was returned, the 
author came to him with a melancholy afpeCt, and pre¬ 
tended it was loft. Magliabecchi, being requefted to col- 
ledfc as much of it as he could, wrote the whole without 
miffing a word, or making any variation in the fpelling. 
Dr. Wallis tells us, that without the abidance of pen and 
ink, or any thing equivalent, he was able in the dark, 
by mere force of memory, to perform arithmetical ope¬ 
rations, as multiplication, divifion, extraction of roots. 
See. to forty places. Particularly, that, in February 
1671-2, at the requeft of a foreigner (by night in bed) he 
propofed to himlelf a number of fifty-three places, and 
found its fquare-root to twenty-feven places ; and, without 
ever writing down the number, dictated it from his me¬ 
mory, at his next vifit, twenty days after. Phil. Tran/'. 
abr. iii. 24-8. 
Artificial Memory, or Mnemonics, is an art, or in¬ 
vention, by means of which the memory is fuppofed to 
be aided, ftrengthened, and enlarged. This art feems to 
confilt in nothing elfe but a certain method of coupling 
or aflociating the ideas of things to be remembered, with 
the ideas of other things, already difpofed or orderly in the 
mind, or that are before the eyes. It is of an old (land¬ 
ing, having been praCtifed by many of the ancient rheto¬ 
ricians, under the denomination of topical memory, fome 
of whom are (aid to have made ufe of paintings, images, 
and emblems, on this occalion ; though others contented 
themfelves with the parts, members, ornaments, furniture, 
and other circumdances, of the place where they were 
to (peak. Muretus tells us that, a young man of Corfica 
pretending to do wonders this way, Muretus put him to 
the trial; and upon dictating to him two or three thou¬ 
fand words, fome Greek, fome Latin, fome barbarous; 
all without any relation to each other, and the greateft 
part without any meaning at all; the artiil immediately, 
and without hefitation, or the leaft (tumbling or dif- 
placing, repeated them all, from firft to lad, in the fame 
order wherein they had been dictated ; and this done, 
beginning where he ended, he repeated them all back¬ 
wards, from laft to fil'd. Adding, that this was but a 
flight eflay of his memory ; and that he would undertake 
to repeat thirty-fix thoufand words in the fame manner. 
Many have been the attempts, in ail ages, to affift the 
memory. Some hare had recourfe to medicine, fuch as 
X Horftius, 
