Page:Moral Pieces in Prose and Verse.pdf/73

 select wisely from the store-house of the mind, and promptness to apply what is selected, at the moment when it will produce the best effect.

As the want of this is most deeply realized in society, so it is most easily acquired by free and rational conversation. Were the importance of this qualification sufficiently considered, it would more frequently turn the unprofitable channel of discourse, and introduce subjects which might at once draw forth, and enrich the latent treasures of the mind. The first act of the memory compares, compounds, and secures a stock of ideas, the other selects from that stock whatever may entertain, convince, or instruct others. But if this latter exercise of memory is peculiarly useful to those who associate much with the world, its most pleasing office is to lead the mind through the cells which she has stored, or the gardens which she has planted, that it may collect sweetness, or study wisdom, or refresh itself after the cares and perplexities of life.

Memory is also a criterion of moral taste: For the mind will cherish those ideas that are most congenial to it; and if those which frequently recur leave the deepest impressions, it follows that what is most congenial to the taste, we remember best. Thus we often meet with