of past and present existence, is ours: ours, either to waste, as will directs, upon the trifles, lighter than a feather of the passing moment, or to turn upon subjects of useful or of lofty import; we must tremble in view of such responsibility.

My young friends, the power you have of perceiving and of thinking is bestowed upon you by the Eternal Mind. Holy Writ has said "there is a spirit in man, and the inspiration of the Almighty giveth them understanding." Job 27, 8. Nor only is understanding given, sufficient to enable you to conceive objects in their variety, beauty, extent and utility, but you are capable of directing your knowledge to useful purposes. Not only able by the perceptions of sense to conceive of material things, so, that your existence may be rendered useful and happy; but by the higher endowments of intellect, you are enabled to look at your own immaterial nature, to fathom the depths of thought in your own bosoms: still more, you are rendered capable of reaching in your conception the Infinite and Eternal Intelligence. You cannot indeed comprehend the nature of His existence, nor understand the wisdom of His Providence, but you may look at the glories of His Grace in the Gospel of His Son. Here, to understand, to believe, and to adore, is the

1

1

highest direction of your intellectual souls; for the object of your being was thus to show forth the glory of your Creator. Oh, if intellect so amazing be not directed to its highest purpose, who can tell, how it may be employed, when, divested of all sensible resource, it shall be left to the strongest conception of its moral and irremediable degradation!

CHAPTER VII.

MEMORY.

My young friends, in placing before you illustrations of some of the leading facts that belong to this branch of study, I would but draw you to a deeper research, and induce you to read such works as may give you better assistance in the developement of the understanding and, the formation of character.

We have already shown that the soul of man is a created and free intelligence, brought by its union with the body into a world filled with an immense variety of objects; here relations innumerable exist between matter and its properties, between these objects and mind itself; between mind and mind, between this world and worlds conceived. The perceptive power

of the intellect naturally beholds whatever is presented to its observation, but the multitude of objects and of truths thus presented, would pass before it, as the figures of a phantasmagoria flit before the eye, appearing for a moment and disappearing forever, were not some of them arrested by attention, and retained for future use by memory. The intelligence of the mind and its power of conception would be useless, had it no ability to retain knowledge thus acquired, and impressions thus received.

It is sometimes asserted that persons of strong imaginative or reasoning power, such as Shakspeare and Franklin, are deficient in remembrance; but how can this be? How can the mind weave its own fancies into realities unless the imagery vividly impressed upon the conception be also engraved upon the memory? How could a man like Franklin or Newton carry on a train of reasoning drawn from some simple fact, without remembering, not only what he had noticed, but also his own reflections on the fact, together with a multitude of similar observations? The power which retains intellectual perceptions must be much greater than that. which holds merely the ideas derived from the objects of the senses; for such ideas are perpetually returned by association to the mind." The person who remembers the conceptions of

the pure intellect, has without doubt a better memory than one who can fix the event to every date in a chronological table, or he who can repeat every word of a discourse he has heard pronounced.

That exercise of attention concerned in committing to memory, words, which are only the symbols of thought, cannot be as laborious and as profitable to the mind as attention exercised in combining, arranging and treasuring up thought itself. Intellect thus employed may, and probably will, draw from its own stores, wealth more precious than the jewels of the East, and enrich the world with knowledge, enduring as time itself. How do such men as Newton and Franklin, Dr. Paley and Bishop Butler compare with Magliabecchi, who, after having perused a manuscript could write down every word, without even forgetting the peculiarities of the spelling? He was a walking library, most convenient for authors to consult, but what were the fruits of such labours? he wrote and published a catalogue! Or how do they compare with Longuerue, who at the age of fourteen, was already acquainted with all the dead languages, as well as the modern ones of Europe, commenced the Oriental, and who in the facts belonging to History, Chronology and Geography was the oracle of Paris? Of his

labours remain a Latin dessertation and a historical description of France, written very inaccurately from memory. These works and the memorial of the above remarkable men flourish in the records of a biographical Dictionary,* while the discoveries of Newton and Franklin, the reasonings of Paley and Butler, will furnish subjects for the further operations of thought most important, as long as the conception and memory of things terrestrial endure.

Upon observation we find that the ideas retained by the memory of some, are not so retained by others, as in the above instances. Some remember objects, places and names; others events and dates; others again facts and observations, or causes and effects. Coleridge says of himself, "I have read all the famous histories, and, I believe some history of every country and nation that is, or ever existed, but I never did so for the story itself as a story. The only thing interesting to me was the principles to be evolved from and illustrated by the facts. After I had gotten my principles, I pretty generally left the facts to take care of themselves. I could never remember any passages in books, or the particulars of events, except in the gross. I can refer to them. To be sure I must be a Dictionnaire Historique par une societe des gens des

lettres.