These instances are sufficiently remarkable, even af ter making every reasonable allowance for exaggera tion. But there is a story told by Antontus Muretus, respecting the wonderful memory of a young Corsi can, which is still more astonishing. We shall relate the story nearly in his own words. " At Padua there dwelt, not far from me, a young Corsican, who was be lieved to be of a good family. He had come thither in order to learn the civil law, and had devoted hinisell, for several years, to this study, with such diligence and success, that we all began to entertain a high optnion of his learning. During one summer, he came almost every evening to my house. He was reported to be in possession of an art of memory, by means of which he could perform things which no one could believe with out being an eye-witness. I had scarcely learnt this when I.became desirous of seeing some of these won ders; and my wish was soon gratified. I told him that, in return for my hospitality, I conceived I had a right to ask to see a specimen of his art, if it were at tended with no inconvenience to himself. He answer ed immediately, and without taking time to reflect, that he would willingly comply, as soon as I should desire it. We went directly into an adjoining room, and sat down. I dictated to him words from the Latin, Grer k, and other languages, with which he was less fa miliar, sometimes with and sometimes without mean ing, so different, so unconnected, and in such number, that I was abundantly fatigued with dictating, the boy who took down the words with writing, and the other persons present, with hearing and expectation of the re sult. He alone, still cheerful and unexhaustcd, always called for more. I told him, however, that every thing must have its due measure and limits, and that I should be perfectly satisfied if lie could repeat but the one half of what I had dictated. He then stood for some time silent, with his eyes fixed upon the ground, while we were all full of expectation. At length this won derful man began to speak ; and lie repeated, to our astonishment, every thing in the very same order, and without the slightest embarrassment or hesitation. He then began with the last word, and repeated backwards to the first ; and he afterwards repeated the first, third, fifth word, &c. or in any other given order. I after wards became better acquainted with him, and found, after many trials, that there was no quackery in his system. He once assured me (and he was the great est enemy of all boasting) that he could, in the same manner, repeat 56 000 (others read only 6.000) words. But what is most remarkable, every thing was so firmly impressed on his memory, that, as he asserted, he could without difficulty remember whatever he had commit ted to it after a lapse of years; and this assertion I found to be true, upon making a trial some consider-, able time afterwards. But farther : There dwelt with me Franciscus Molinus, a patrician of Venice, who was exceedingly ardent in the study of the sciences. Im pressed with the feeling of the weakness of his memo ry, he entreated the Corsican to teach him his art, to which the latter immediately consented. A place and hour were accordingly fixed for their daily meetings ; and in the course of six or seven days the scholar could repeat, without difficulty, more than five hundred words, in the same, or any other given order." Mure tus adds, I should not have ventured to relate all this, lest I should be suspected of a falsehood, if the facts had not been quite recent, and capable of being attested by a number of witnesses. The Corsican as serted that he had learnt this art from a Frenchman, who had been his tutor." Gisbert Voetius, a reformed divine of the seventeenth century, considers the per formance of this Corsican as a proof of his intercourse with the devil.
The astonishing powers of calculation possessed by Jedediah Buxton, a man otherwise illiterate, are well known ; and many of us have had a recent opportunity of witnessing a similar phenomenon, in the person of Zerah Colborn, an American boy, under eight years of age, who exhibited in London and Edinburgh some years ago, and who, without any previous knowledge of the common rules of arithmetic, or even of the use and power of the Arabic numerals, and without having given any particular attention to the subject, was found to possess, as if by intuition, the singular faculty of solving a great variety of arithmetical questions by the mere operation of the mind, and without the usual assistance of any visible symbol or contrivance.*
We might quote various other instances of indkidu als who possessed extraordinary powers of memory, but it is unnecessary to multiply examples. We proceed. therefore, to notice the traditional origin of the lainCmo nic art, as mentioned in it he Pariah Chi onicle, as well as by Cicero and Quintilian, and other ancient authors. And here we shall avail ourselves of the labours of the late Professor Barron, who, in his Lectures, has entered pretty fully into the discussion of this subject.
The principal expedient for assisting the memory is derived from association. For instance, when I see a house, I naturally recollect the inhabitants, their manner of life, and the intercourse I have had with them. The sight of a book prompts the memory of its contents, and the pleasure or profit I have received front the perusal of it. A view of the sea may suggest the idea of a storm ; and the painful recollection of the loss of property, or of the life of a friend, by shipwreck. The act, then, of aiding recollection by association, is to connect thoughts remote or abstract, with others more obvious and fami liar, that the recurrence of the latter may bring along with it the memory of the former. Thus, the sight of my ring, which I cannot miss to observe, reminds me of the action, to suggest the remembrance of which I removed it from one finger to another. The ringing of the bell, or the sounding of the clock, prompts the recollection of the business 1 !tad resolved to perform at these times. A glimpse of the first words of a paragraph, or a page, introduces the recollection of the whole. In a word, we must connect the things we wish to remember with the immediate objects of our senses, that offer themselves daily to our attention, but particularly with the objects of our sight, the most vigorous and lively of all our senses, and of which the objects nre perhaps more numerous than those of all our other senses put together.
This theory is the foundation of all contrivances which have been, or perhaps can be, employed to help recollection. It is the groundwork of the famous arti licial memory of Simonides, a lyric poet, who is cele brated by Cicero and Quintilian as the inventor of mnemonics. Both these authors relate the following mythological incident, on the occasion which suggested the invention. Simonides was employed by Scopas, a rich Thessalian, to compose a panegyric on him for a certain sum of money ; was invited to a festival, given by Scopas to his friends, in order to rehearse it, but was sordidly refused more than half the stipulated com pensation; because, puzzled perhaps with the sterility of the principal subject, he had introduced a long epis ode in praise of Castor and Pollux. Simonides was soon after summoned from the company by two young men on horseback, supposed to be Castor and Pollux in dis guise, who, as soon as they had saved their favourite poet, made the roof fall on Scopas and his company, bruising them to death, that not a lineament of them could be known. Simonides, however, by recollecting the order in which they sat at table, was enabled to dis tinguish them, and to deliver them to their friends for burial. The aid which the recollection of the poet re ceived, on this occasion, is said to have suggested the idea of an artificial memory.