MEMORY. (SATURDAY REVIEW

Waikato Times, Volume III, Issue 163, 24 May 1873, Page 2

MEMORY. (SATURDAY REVIEW

Shouij> we bo gamers if the memory of the world were strengthened so that everybody could always recall at will' all the tilings lie wishes to recall * 3fost people will probably be disposed to think that this would be iv questionableboon, unless indeed an access of memory brought with it at least an equal access of judgment oiul sympathy. Many persons lament their defective memory, and wish they could 1 tell you things — %c bnfc my memory w so bad;" and wo secretly settle with ourselves that " it is best as it is," for the tax on our attention will be tlio- lesg. Unquestionablyattention becomes more frwbidioris as tlie world grows older ; we are more chary of it than our forefathers. Hence it m«y be observed that memory does not now hold the place it once didjas an accomplishment. Now ndiu s a good memory meets w ltli as little envy as any (juality that can be named ; whore it exists it is not thought north while tx> dispute it. The- real importance of verbal memory of this sort sank when the art of printing came in and reading became & common accomplishment, though its prestige lasted some time longer People therefore we right in valuing memory now according to the use it is put to, for its practicaL service! to its owner, or for restoring (o us what i» otherwise beyond our reacli What a memory retains is the sole test of what it is north. In its moral aspect tho memory may sometimes indicate an unusual warmth, tenderness, and tenacity of affection ; but, on the other hand, there are vindietno memories which retain only provocations, or impertinent memories winch treasure up precisely the things born to oblivion, or which we should choose lo be forgottenAnd so, too, there are frivolous memories winch retam only trivialities, and entangle the mind in a maze of nothings. To have n verbal memory like Dick Swiveller's, infested with tags of verse and cues of rhyme, is, somebody has said, ns vulgar, as destructive of any tram of thought wortli the name, as the stable-boy's habit of whistling easy airs uponthe mere mechanical excitement of a bar or two whistled by some other blockhead in some other stable. To the man himself any strength of memory which does, not hinder reflection and excuse tho labour of thought is valuable; but the memory which is worth most to the world is that which Loops us supplied with a knowledge of things that would otlierwiee b& lost. Books and newspapers tell us a great deal, and enable us often to dispense without much lnconvenienc with the exercise of memory; but there is one brunch of study which owes more to faithful, retentive memory than to all the books in the world. We mean the memory that retains in living freshness the savings and doings, the look and aspect of a past generation ; that can. set before us, as it unfolded itsolf, a sceue all the actors in which aro dead and gone, and bring to our ears witlx just emphasis the very words of feeling or passion spoken years ago. Memory of the higher sort distinguishes for it-elf what is memorable.' To repent what another lias said because Jt wns characteristic of him is a more useful exercise of the talent than to commit pages of the same man's writing to memory. Perhaps too, it is a more difficult one. In these cises the value of memory consists in its literal, even truth. For few memories aro entirely truthful. We many of us find them false mainly to our own cost or inconvenience. We are sure we put a missing article where we did not put it, that we read a passage in tlie middle of a right-hand page when it turns out to be at the top of the left ; tlie eye of memory has the most distinct recollection, and yet it is not true. Tlie most disinterested witnesses at atrial contradict one another because each is sure of what he neither saw nor heard exactly as he thinks ho saw or heard it. Next to the lying memory, and far more common, is the treacherous memory that fails us at a pinch, hiding itself in darkness, leaving us cognizant of its existence but eluding our grusp. Nothing is more tantalizing than tins state of mind. Tlie man who feels the fact or word or name flitting just out of his reach is a misery to himself and everybody else Very few people have philosophy enough to give in ; to reflect that what they search for in such restless persistence matters to nobody ; for the tune being they have lost themselves and worry after it. It h ono of the most pathetic facts of life, to which no use reconciles us, that so much of the prime an.l Honor of Us thought and nit should pass utterly a way « lnlo still ringing in ouv e»rs ; that words w hich range themselves in noble, touching solemn order should slip out of our thought, inner to sound with the same rhythm again that saungs and incidents, each a revelation of personal character or of doeo human nature, should have no witness capable of recording them ; that each generation should know so little o( its predecessors. This is the memory which* men jearn after, for the want of which comertation is disappointing, and historj and biography so imperfect , but in desiring which wo know not what we "ask. Life, in fact, has not room for such memories.

Hu.L Marks on Piate — Mr Strceter, the well-known. London jeweller, alarms that (lie public are frequently imposed on by people who sell 9-enwt gold for 18-cim>t, and doubU tho value oi the " Hall murk " imposed by the GoldsmithV Company. .Mr dialler*, author of" Hall Marks on Plate," and we suppose of the \alimble book about the marks on china, thereuj>on retorts that the Goldsmiths' Company is very careful, and mark*, according to quality, 0, 12,15, nnd 18 carats on tho stamp. Very true, but as* tho public does not know that, an 1 cannot read the " Hall mark," it is systematically taken in. The evil is a \ cry serious one, apart from forgery, and could be levy oasdy remedied. Lot the Company mark only 18-carat gold. If anybody wants to sell a ehenper article let him stamp it with his own name and fie number of carat-*, and if the number of carats is wiong, let him sutler tho usual penalties of fraud. A largo proportion of the women in England are cheated about t'loir wedding-rings, and can no nuio read a "Hull mark " than a euueiioim inscription