CURIOSITIES OF MEMORY.

Mount Ida Chronicle, Volume III, Issue 163, 19 April 1872, Page 3

CURIOSITIES OF MEMORY.

John Kemble used to say ''that he could learri a whole number of the ' Morning Post' in four days ; and General Christie made a similar assertion'; but it is not known how far either of them verified this statement. Robert. Dillon could .'repeat intbe morning six columns newspaper he. had read over night. During the repeal debates inthe H--use of Commons 37 : years ago, one of the members wrote out his speech, sent it to the newspapers, and, repeated it to the House in the evening ; it was found to be" the same verbatim as that which he had written out. John tuller, a land agent' in..Norfolk, could.-remember every word of a sermon, and write it out correctly after -oing home ; this was tested by cornj?arinjj his written account with the clergyman's manuscript. Sealiger could ■repeat-100 verses or.more after haviuoread them a single time. Seneca could repeat 2000' words on hearing them once. Magliabecchi, who had a prodigious memory, was once put to a severe

: test. A gentleman-lent him a manuscript, which' was read and returned. The owner, some time afterwards, pretending he had lost it,, begged Maglinbecchi ro write out as much as he could remember ; whereupon the latter, appealing to his'memory, wrote 6iitthe whole essay. Cyrus,-'if-some of the old historians are to be credited, could remember the name of every soldier in his immense army.. There, was a Corsican boy who could rehearse 40,000 words, whether sense, or nonsense as they were:-.dictated .and then repeat them in the reversed order without making a single mistake. A physician of Massachusetts, about half a century ago, could repeat the whole of " Paradise Lost " without: mistake although he had never read for 20 years. Euler, the great mathematician, he, became blind could repeat the whole of Virgil's "iEneid" and could remeaiber the first line and- the last Hue on every page of the particular edition which he had been accustomed to -1 read before he became blind.'- ■'.