On this page
-
Text (2)
-
Untitled Article
-
Untitled Article
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
-
-
Transcript
-
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
Additionally, when viewing full transcripts, extracted text may not be in the same order as the original document.
Untitled Article
I . " Forgetting the things which are behind . " The faculty of memory is of such prime importance in the formation and improvement of mind , that no progress whatever can be made without it . This faculty supplies the materials on which all the others work ; and in proportion to its original strength or weakness is the approximation to intellectual power or to idiotcy . It becomes of less importance as the other
faculties are developed , as they supersede its office by supplying to each other the elements on which they are to be severally employed : and hence we perceive the cause and recognize the purpose for which the memory becomes less tenacious as years advance . The other faculties being brought into play , the essential strength of the memory becomes of less and less importance to the general intellectual improvement ; while the correctness of its discipline should be made an object of perpetual attention .
A powerful , undisciplined memory is so wearisome a qualification in a companion , that it is only necessary to have known such an one to be aware how its vagaries delay the progress of the -rifind , and impede the steady advance of its improvement : while instances of a defective memory in eminent men of every class and degree , are so common as to prove that a great tenacity of facts and impressions is not a primary requisite of excellence . It was by applying his extraordinary power of abstraction to the
materials furnished by memory as well as observation that Newton wrought out stupendous results from a very scanty assortment of facts . While observing that an apple falls , and remembering only that a feather floats , and that rain was once vapour , he was advancing much more rapidly towards his theory of gravitation , than if his mind had been crowded with
remembrances of all the circumstances which happened at tihe time he was observing feathers and showers . To him the art of forgetting was as serviceable as an unreflecting person would predict it to be disastrous . To have a strong memory under command is an inestimable advantage ; but to have a weak one under command has been proved to be sufficient for all needful purposes , while the other faculties are vigorous .
This view of the instrumentality of memory , in promoting or delaying the improvement of the intellect , is universally allowed ; but most persons appear to act upon an opposite theory in their spiritual concerns . Whereas , not only are the instruments identical in the two cases , but their operation is strictly analogous . All the powers of the intellect are engaged in spiritual processes , and precisely according to their usual method of operation . The only difference is , that in the one case they are employed upon facts ; in the other , on impressions .
This difference , it is true , involves an important distinction—but a distinction which only serves to corroborate the convictions we are about to offer . Both facts and impressions are important only in their results ; as they afford knowledge or exert influence . The results of facts are not necessarily or often immediate ; those of impressions are so . The agency of memory is , therefore , more important in the first case than in the last . A fact may lie in the mind , like a seed in the ground , for days , months , and years , preserved by the memory , as the seed by the surrounding soil , before the fit season shall arrive for it to put forth its manifestations of use and
Untitled Article
( 616 )
Untitled Article
ESSAY ON THE PROPER USE OF THE RETROSPECTIVE FACULTY .
-
-
Citation
-
Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Sept. 2, 1830, page 616, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2588/page/32/
-