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CHAP. transactions of their youth *. In fome diseases, this part of the conftitution is evidently affected. A stroke of the palfy has been known, (while it did not destroy the power of fpeech,) to render the patient incapable of recollecting the names of the moft familiar objects. What is still more remarkable, the name of an object has been known to fuggeft the idea of it as formerly, although the sight of the object ceased to suggest the name.

IN fo far as this decay of memory which old age brings along with it, is a neceffary confequence of a physical change in the constitution, or a neceffary consequence of a diminution of senfibility, it is the part of a wise man to submit cheerfully to the lot of his nature. But it is not unreasonable to think, that something may be done by our own efforts, to obviate the inconveniencies which commonly refult from it. If individuals, who, in the early part of life, have weak memories, are fometimes able to remedy this defect, by a greater attention to arrangement in their transactions, and to claffification among their ideas, than is necessary to the bulk of mankind, might it not be poffible, in the same

* Swift somewhere expreffes his surprise, that old men fhould remember their anecdotes fo diftinctly, and should, notwithstanding, have so little memory as to tell the same story twice in the course of the fame conversation; and a fimilar remark is made by Montaigne, in one of his Effays: "Surtout "les Vieillards font dangereux, à qui la fouvenance des chofes paffées demeure, "et ont perdu la fouvenance de leurs redites."

Liv. i. chap. ix. (Des Menteurs.)

The fact feems to be, that all their old ideas remain in the mind, connected as formerly by the different affociating principles; but that the power of attention to new ideas and new occurrences is impaired,

way,

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way, to ward off, at least to a certain degree, the encroach- CHA P. ments which time makes on this faculty? The few old men who continue in the active fcenes of life to the laft moment, it has been often remarked, complain, in general, much less of a want of recollection, than their cotemporaries. This is undoubtedly owing partly to the effect which the pursuits of business must neceffarily have, in keeping alive the power of attention. But it is probably owing also to new habits of arrangement, which the mind gradually and infenfibly forms, from the experience of its growing infirmities. The apparent revival of memory in old men, after a temporary decline, (which is a case that happens not unfrequently,) feems to favour this fuppofition.

ONE old man, I have, myself, had the good fortune to know, who, after a long, an active, and an honourable life, having begun to feel fome of the usual effects of advanced years, has been able to find resources in his own fagacity, against most of the inconveniencies with which they are commonly attended; and who, by watching his gradual decline with the cool eye of an indifferent obferver, and employing his ingenuity to retard its progress, has converted even the infirmities of age into a fource of philofophical amusement.

CHAP.
VI.

SECTION II.

Of the Varieties of Memory in different Individuals.

IT
T is generally fuppofed, that, of all our faculties, Memory
is that which nature has beftowed in the moft unequal de-
grees on different individuals; and it is far from being impof-
fible that this opinion may be well founded. If, however, we
confider, that there is fcarcely any man who has not memory
fufficient to learn the use of language, and to learn to recognize,
at the first glance, the appearances of an infinite number of
familiar objects; befides acquiring fuch an acquaintance with
the laws of nature, and the ordinary courfe of human affairs,
as is neceffary for directing his conduct in life; we shall be
fatisfied that the original disparities among men, in this respect,
are by no means fo immenfe as they feem to be at firft view;
and that much is to be afcribed to different habits of attention,
and to a difference of felection among the various objects and
events prefented to their curiofity.

As the great purpose to which this faculty is fubfervient, is to enable us to collect, and to retain, for the future regulation

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of our conduct, the results of our paft experience; it is evident CHA P. that the degree of perfection which it attains in the cafe of different perfons, muft vary; firft, with the facility of making the original acquifition; fecondly, with the permanence of the acquifition; and thirdly, with the quickness or readiness with which the individual is able, on particular occafions, to apply it to ufe. The qualities, therefore, of a good memory are, in the first place, to be fufceptible; fecondly, to be retentive; and thirdly, to be ready.

Ir is but rarely that these three qualities are united in the fame perfon. We often, indeed, meet with a memory which is at once fufceptible and ready; but I doubt much, if such memories be commonly very retentive: for, fufceptibility and readiness are both connected with a facility of affociating ideas, according to their more obvious relations; whereas retentiveness, or tenaciousness of memory, depends principally on what is feldom united with this facility, a disposition to system and to philofophical arrangement. Thefe obfervations it will be neceffary to illuftrate more particularly.'

I HAVE already remarked, in treating of a different fubject, that the bulk of mankind, being but little accustomed to reflect and to generalife, affociate their ideas chiefly according to their more obvious relations; thofe, for example, of resemblance and of analogy; and above all, according to the cafual relations arifing from contiguity in time and place: whereas, in the mind of a philofopher, ideas are commonly affociated according to those 3 G 2

rela

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CHAP. relations which are brought to light in confequence of particular efforts of attention; fuch as the relations of Caufe and Effect, or of Premises and Conclufion. This difference in the modes of affociation of these two claffes of men, is the foundation of fome very striking diversities between them in respect of intellectual character.

IN the first place, in confequence of the nature of the rela tions which connect ideas together in the mind of the philofopher, it must neceffarily happen, that when he has occafion to apply to use his acquired knowledge, time and reflexion will be requifite to enable him to recollect it. In the cafe of those, on the other hand, who have not been accustomed to fcientific pursuits; as their ideas are connected together according to the most obvious relations; when any one idea of a class is prefented to the mind, it is immediately followed by the others, which fucceed each other spontaneously according to the laws of affociation. In managing, therefore, the little details of fome fubaltern employment, in which all that is required, is a knowledge of forms, and a disposition to observe them, the want of a systematical genius is an important advantage; because this want renders the mind peculiarly fufceptible of habits, and allows the train of its ideas to accommodate itself perfectly to the daily and hourly occurrences of its fituation. But if, in this respect, men of no general principles have an advantage over the philofopher, they fall greatly below him in another point of view; inafmuch as all the information which they poffefs, muft neceffarily be limited by their own proper experience; whereas the philosopher,