it perfectly intelligible, at least to me: nor do I know that any modern orator has ever made use of it. It seems, indeed, to have been a laborious way of improving memory; as Quintilian himself acknowledges. In allusion to it, we still call the parts of a discourse places or topics, and say, in the first place, in the second place, &c.

130. What we perceive by two senses at once has a good chance to be remembered. Hence to read aloud, slowly, and with propriety, when one is accustomed to it, contributes greatly to remembrance. And that which we write in a good hand, without contractions, with dark-coloured ink, exactly pointed and spelled, in straight lines with a moderate space between them, and properly subdivided into paragraphs as the subject may require, is better remembered than what we throw together in confusion. For, by all these circumstances, attention is fixed, and the writing, being better understood, makes a deeper impression. Those things also, which are related in two or more respects, are more easily remembered than such as are related in one respect only. Hence, by most people, verse is more easily remembered than prose, because the words are related in measure as well as in sense; and rhyme than blank verse, because the words are related not only in sense and measure, but also by similar sounds at the end of the lines. And, in general, elegant and harmoni

ous language is better remembered, than what is

harsh and incorrect.

131. Memories differ greatly both in kind and in degree. One man remembers best one sort of things, and another another; which may, in part, be owing to habits contracted of attending to one sort of things more than to another: and this may be assigned as one cause of the varieties of genius that are observable among mankind. In the early part of life, memory is commonly strong; for then the mind is disengaged, curiosity active, the spirits high, and the agreeable passions predominant. Infants easily remember, and as easily forget. A child of six years, going into a foreign country, acquires the new language, and forgets his own, in a few months. Most things are easily learned in the first part of life, especially languages. In mature age, curiosity is abated, and the spirits less lively than in youth: but men are then more capable of strict attention, and both the memory and the judgment must be considerably improved by experience and long exercise. In old age, curiosity is still more abated, and few things yield amusement, or are much attended to; and therefore memory is for the most part weak, except in regard to transactions long since past, or peculiarly suited to the present disposition.

132. To improve this faculty, we must, as al. ready observed, cultivate habits of strict attention,

not only when we read books, or hear discourses, but also in conversation, and in every part of our daily business. It will also be prudent to study according to a plan, to dispose our affairs methodically, and to study nothing but what may be useful. To read a great variety of books is not necessary; but those we read should all be good ones; and we shall do well to read them slowly and considerately, often recollecting what we have read, and meditating upon it; and we should never leave a good author till we be masters of both his language and his doctrine. A list will be given hereafter of some of those books in Greek, Latin, and English, that deserve to be studied in this accurate manner. For, as Bacon well observes,

some books are to be read only in parts; others to be read, but not curiously; and some few to be read wholly, with diligence and attention.' There is much good sense in the following aphorism of the same great author: reading makes ą full man, writing an exact man, and conversation a ready man.’

133. It is hardly credible to what a degree both active and passive remembrance may be improved by long practice. There are clergymen who can get a sermon by heart in two hours, though their memory, when they began to exercise it, was rather weak than strong. And pleaders, and other orators who speak in public and extempore, often discover, in calling instantly to mind all the know

ledge necessary on the present occasion, and every thing of importance that may have been advanced in the course of a long debate, such powers of retention and of recollection as, to the man who has never been obliged to exert himself in the same manner, are altogether astonishing.

134. Frequently to revise our knowledge; to talk about it when we have a convenient opportunity, that is, when we are in the company of those who may wish to hear us talk about it; to teach it to others; to reduce it to practice as much as possible; and to set down in writing, not on loose papers, but in books kept for the purpose, whatever may occur to us on any subject, would greatly improve both our memory and our judg ment. To transcribe literally from books is of little use, or rather of none; for it employs much time, without improving any one of our faculties. But to write an abridgment of a good book may sometimes be a very profitable exercise. In general, when we would preserve the doctrines, sentiments, or facts, that occur in reading, it will be prudent to lay the book aside, and put them in writing in our own words. This practice will give accuracy to our knowledge, accustom us to recollection, improve us in the use of language, and enable us so thoroughly to comprehend the thoughts of other men as to make them, in some measure,

our own.

135. The memory of brutes seems to serve

them no further, than is necessary to the preservation of them and their offspring, and for making them useful to man. In some of them it is attended with extraordinary circumstances. Bees, for example, can see but a very little way before them, as appears from the extreme convexity of their eyes: and yet find their way, from a long excursion, to their respective homes, and seldom or never mistake a neighbouring hive for their own. In this they must be guided, not only by memory, but also by smell, or rather by some other instinct whereof we have no conception. Yet, with all the helps that he derives from instinct, or from more acute organs of sense, the memory of the most sagacious brute is to that of men almost infinitely inferior. Many brutes are quite untractable; of such the memory must be very limited. Those that are docile soon reach the height of improvement; and the arts and habits which it is in our power to impress upon them are but few. Destitute of consciousness, of reason, of recollection, of conversation, and of the powers of invention and arrangement, the extent of their knowledge must be extremely small, and their memory proportionable. Of abstract notions in regard to truth and falsehood, virtue and vice, elegance and deformity, proportions in quantity and number, law, government, religion, commerce, and other sciences and arts, which are the most important parts of human knowledge, they are utterly ig