Democratic Sentinel, Volume 7, Number 9, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 30 March 1883 — Facts of Memory. [ARTICLE]

Facts of Memory.

Sundry men, gifted with a tenacious verbal memory, have performed wonderful feats. Learned Rabbis have been known to repeat the whole of the Hebrew Scriptures, word for word. A French Marquis made a hand-book of France from recollection, in which he described every chateau in the kingdom. Cardinal Mezzofanti, the wonder among mere linguists, could remember entire dictionaries and grammars. A Roman priest used to amuse his friends by an extraordinary feat of memory. Allowing them to designate any line of an Italian poet, he would begin with it and recite 100 lines, backward or forward, according to the wish of his listeners. A Scottish clergyman, it is said, could repeat every word of the Scriptures of the Old and New Testament quoted in the writings of the Greek and Latin Fathers. His friends used to say that, if every copy of the Bible in the world was destroyed, he would be able to reproduce the entire Scriptures from his memory. Prescott, the historian, tells an anecdote of how Macaulay was caught tripping, cne day, in a line of “Paradise Lost.” In a few days he came back with the poem in his hand, saying, as he offered it to the gentleman who had caught him, “I do not think that you will catch me in the Paradise again”— and they did not. The late Dr. Addison Alexander, of Princeton Theological Seminary, had a wonderful memory. It was not only tenacious of words and facts, but, as often as he willed it, would summon into his mind all of his past experiences and knowledge. For the amusement of the young folks, he would sometimes say, “Nowl am going to talk without thinking.” Then he would pour out period after period of strange words and incongruous images, harmonious and even rhythmical in sound, but wholly destitute of sense. If any one thinks this an easy feat, let him try to suspend his reason and give a free rein to his fancy in periods which shall be grammatically correct and yet destitute of meaning. It might made an exercise in the mere verbal use of words. Another of his surprising feats was to submit himself to examination and tell, off-hand, where he was and what he was doing on any day of any year the examiner chose to name. He would ■ submit himself to be catechized about the Kings and Queens of ancient and modern Europe, and tell the name of any sovereign, with the dates of his birth, coronation and death, and his chief exploits. New York city nas 3,000 teachers in