Page:Moral Pieces in Prose and Verse.pdf/72

 since their possessors would have a great variety of original and brilliant ideas, even without external advantages, industry, or unusual degrees of application. It is so much in the power of all, to fix firmly in their minds what they have once admitted there, that some moral philosophers have asserted that memory is only a habit of fixed attention; and that though we cannot always acquire what we wish, we may always remember what we please. This theory is supported by instances of persons who have received from nature a very weak memory, yet by study and application have strengthened it to every useful and laudable purpose. Without this faculty, knowledge loses its value; education becomes ineffectual, and it is impossible to excel in any literary department.

Careful study, and constant practice, are necessary to mature it where it exists, and to acquire it where it does not; and ideas are thus arranged, consolidated, and treasured in the secret recesses of the mind, to be brought forth for future use, ornament, or delight. That ready recollection by which the knowledge possessed is brought into immediate exercise, as momentary exigences may require, is a different department of memory; more complicated, and less easily acquired. This requires judgment to