Page:Littell's Living Age - Volume 130.djvu/72

64 not know if this person is he to whom they were introduced last night, nor what names belong to the faces which they do remember. Between thinking that they ought to know people whom they never saw in their lives before, and forgetting those whom they ought to remember, the lives of the short-sighted are weighted with a heavier burden than belongs to most; and, however disagreeable to others may be their forgetfulness, they are more deserving of pity than censure. And if to the physical defect of eyesight is added much intercourse with the world and a crowd of acquaintances met at intervals, we come to the last degree of this kind of discomfort, and the ultimate misery to which want of memory for faces can bring the poor sufferer from this defect.

All great people have had good memories. It seems, indeed, as if this were one of the essential conditions for success. A good memory utilizes all that is learnt; it is the true cumulative faculty by which days add treasure to treasure, solidly built up in the mind — not like those shifting sandheaps of acquirement, when the memory is bad, which are dispersed as soon as gathered. Great intellect joined to a bad memory is like a lame giant. The strength is there, but the ability to use it — nowhere! Every day begins, as it were, a new mental era in the life of such a one. He forgets much of the good got by him in the time that has gone, and, though he brings glorious faculties to the study of the subject undertaken at this moment, he does not bring the full experience of that which he has gained before — the full value of that which he has already learnt. Hence no one with a treacherous memory can ever hope to become absolutely successful; and all those who have been world-famous have had faithful and tenacious memories, quick, serviceable, and trustworthy. The royal memory is a proverb; but it embodies a truth greater than its apparent flunkeyism, in the fact that a good memory is in its essence royal, and noble, and kingly; and the first-rate men who have had good memories — supremely good — can be counted up by scores.

Learning by heart is a good method for improving the memory, especially learning by heart poetry and "pieces." Many technical systems, too, have been advanced by which the memory may be assisted by mental corks and buoys, mounted on stilts and fastened firmly to central nails. One instance of this the writer remembers — and only one — out of the set of lectures given by the inventor of a certain system of artificial memory. It is the date of Henry IV. "See," said the lecturer, "I take four eggs, and place one in each corner of this muff. The eggs will remind you of a hen, and 'Hen' is the first syllable of 'Henry;' the four eggs will tell you that this hen is Henry IV. By figures the muff spells '1366,' 'm' being the thirteenth letter in the alphabet — eliminate the 'u' 'f' being the sixth. Thus, to remember the date of Henry IV., put your four eggs into the four corners of a muff." But whether the muff meant the birth, accession, or death of this king of four eggs is a fact that, not being buoyed up by any such artificial cork, is now forgotten, and has to be verified only by reference to history. But the best way for a person possessing a bad memory to avoid the inconveniences resulting, is to make careful notes of all that it is necessary to remember, and to organize his life and doings with extreme punctuality and method.

 

 . — This question has been, with many others in relation to the chemistry of this plant, gone into by Mr. T. Wigner, whose papers have been published in the Chemical News. The number of the C. N. for Nov, 12, 1875, contains the author's remarks on the tannin question. He says that the percentage of tannin in tea is very variable, and there is little doubt that this is in a great degree the cause of the erroneous estimate which English tea-drinkers frequently make of the dietetic value of tea. They prefer tea which gives a dark-coloured infusion, and has some sensible astringency, to those varieties which give a paler and less bitter liquor. This probably accounts, to some extent, for the high estimation in which some kinds of Assam are held for mixing-purposes. The acetate-of-lead process seems more reliable for determining the percentage of tannin than the old gelatine process, and it is certainly easier. I have therefore adopted it. I find that a sample taken from a mixture of six samples of Assam tea gave 45.5 per cent, of tannin, while some of the highest results were —

Popular Science Review.