Macaulay's Prodigious Memory.

Kaipara and Waitemata Echo, 14 August 1914, Page 2

Macaulay's Prodigious Memory.

4 James Stephen once wrote to Greville, "can repeat all Demosthenes by heart, all Milton, and practically the whole of the Bible, both in English and Greek ; besides this, his memory retains passages innumerable of every description of books, which in discussion he pours forth with incredible facility." As a child of eight he repeated every line of "The Lay of the Last Minstrel " after one reading ; and on one occasion he kept sea-sickness at bay by reciting the whole of "Paradise Lost," during a voyage from Holyhead to Dublin. But even Macaulay had not c more prodigious memory than Cardinal Mczzofanti, who, before his death, could write and converse fluently in seventy languages, wit! all their variants of dialect —tongues ranging from Chinese tr Czesehish, and from Welsh to Wai lachian. A single reading of g grammar was sufficient for his complete mastery ; and in three weeks he became so proficient in Portuguese that ho was mistaken for a native of Portugal. One day Cardinal Wiseman met Mezsofanti hurrying away to a propaganda "What arc you going tc do theve ?" he inquired. "To teacr the Californians their language," was the sta-tling reply. "But how did you learn (Xlifornian ?" "The\ taught me," answered the Cardinal: "but they have !_..- grammar. I have made a j;ra,.nr;.ar ; and now T ana going to tetvco th "Mil to read and write it." Joseph Sraliger, the famous scholar, in said to have committed tht whoJfi of .Tloraer to memory i tbrei

weeks ; and Antonio Mamliabachi, a Florentine, when once a friend came . to him with the doleful news that j he had lost the manuscript of a ! book on which he had spent a i year's labour, sat down and re- j wrote every word of it from his recollection of' one reading. AN AMAZINCJ FEAT. Even this astounding feat was eclipsed by a young Corsican of whom the geographer, Maretus, tells | us. Having heard that the Corsi- < can, a student of Padua University, ! could repeat as many as 86,000 words after once hearing them, Maretus and a few of his friends de- ' elded to put this remarkable claim ' to the test. A list of nearly 40,000 : words, strung together without any relation so each other, and in a , dozen different tongues, was recited !to the student, who promptly re- ■ peated every one in exact order, without a single mistake. Not content with this feat, he repeated the entire list backwards ; and then went through it a third time, taking each alternate word—promising at the end of his task to repeat it in a year's time, if desired ! Thomas Fuller, author of the "Worthies of Kngland,'' after he had listened to a sermon, was able to recite it, from text to peroration, without a pause or mistake ; and on one occasion, after a quick walk 1 from Temple Bar to Cheapside, repeated both forwards and backwards j the contents of every sign that he I had passed on both sides of the j road. For Tien .lonson it is claimed that he could recite every line he had ever written, and entire ! books that he had read. But we need not go back to these olden times to find examples of amazing memories. Browning, even in his old age, after a single reading of a book, used to quote page after page as fluently and accurately as if he held the volume in his hand. William Morris used to boast that, if every copy of the "Pickwick Papers'' was destroyed, he could restore them to the world without- a word missing ; and1 Gladstone, when once he was unable to find his translation of the first Book of Homer to lend to a friend, recited every line of it from memory. When this feat was once mentioned to his great rival, Disraeli, the latter remarked nonchalantly, " That is quite simple. I could do the same sort of thrng myself within an hour." Lord Derby's translation ' f Homer was handed to him. He »atired with it for an hour, arid on his return repeated the first book from memory—backwards. Of Karl Szabo, the famous Hungarian actor, who died a few years ! ago, many stories even more remarkable are told. To re-deliver 'an entire sermon or speech he had heard was a performance of which he thought, nothing. After listening jto a Parliamentary debate, several j hours in duration, he would entertain his friends the same evening by reproducing every speech verba- ' tim, and with such admirable mimicry of each orator's voice and | peculiarities as to convulse his j audience with laughter. Once, too, I for a wager, he committed to me- [ mory the whole of Scribe's play, j"A Glass of Water," after twice ! reading it, impersonating each part ; with a skill as wonderful as his ! memory. > Almost more incredible to the average man are the marvels of musical memory, of which some astounding stories are told. Not long I ago a friend of Mascagni mentioned ! casually that there was no work ■of the six most famous composer's, 1 whose names he mentioned, which the i great, musician could not play faultlessly without the music. The statement being received with ridicule, Mascagni reluctantly consented, in order to settle the dispute, to make j the effort. A number of experts ! were invited to attend the recital, each in turn selecting a composition for performance. In vain they tried to battle Mascagni, who not only answered the challenge brilliantly in every instance, but filled up the intervals with delightful improvisations of his own.—"Weekly Telegraph."