relations between separate facts upon which judgment and reasoning depend. It
is likewise a common source of surprise among teachers that many of the pupils
who could outstrip their classmates in learning and memory do not turn out to be
able men. But this, says Whately, "is as reasonable as to wonder that a cistern if
filled should not be a perpetual fountain." It is possible for one to be so lost in a
tangle of trees that he cannot see the woods.
A Good Memory Requires Good Thinking.—It is not, then, mere re-
presentation of facts that constitutes a good memory. The pupil who can
reproduce a history lesson by the page has not necessarily as good a memory as
the one who remembers fewer facts, but sees the relations between those
remembered, and hence is able to choose what he will remember. Memory must
be discriminative. It must fasten on that which is important and keep that for us.
Therefore we can agree that "the art of remembering is the art of thinking."
Discrimination must select the important out of our mental stream, and these
images must be associated with as many others as possible which are already
well fixed in memory, and hence are sure of recall when needed. In this way the
old will always serve as a cue to call up the new.
Memory Must Be Specialized.—And not only must memory, if it is to be a
good memory, omit the generally worthless, or trivial, or irrelevant, and supply
the generally useful, significant, and relevant, but it must in some degree be a
specialized memory. It must minister to the particular needs and requirements of
its owner. Small consolation to you if you are a Latin teacher, and are able to call
up the binomial theorem or the date of the fall of Constantinople when you are in
dire need of a conjugation or a declension which eludes you. It is much better for
the merchant and politician to have a good memory for names and faces than to
be able to repeat the succession of English monarchs from Alfred the Great to
Edward VII and not be able to tell John Smith from Tom Brown. It is much
more desirable for the lawyer to be able to remember the necessary details of his
case than to be able to recall all the various athletic records of the year; and so
on.
In order to be a good memory for us, our memory must be faithful in dealing
with the material which constitutes the needs of our vocations. Our memory
may, and should, bring to us many things outside of our immediate vocations,
else our lives will be narrow; but its chief concern and most accurate work must
be along the path of our everyday requirements at its hands. And this works out
well in connection with the physiological laws which were stated a little while
since, providing that our vocations are along the line of our interests. For the