accommodating continually the course of his own ideas, not only to the ideas which are started by his compa. nions, but to every trifling and unexpected accident that may occur to give them a new direction, is the life and foul of every fociety into which he enters. Even the anecdotes which the philofopher has collected, however agreeable they may be in themselves, are feldom introduced by him into converfation, with that unstudied but happy propriety, which we admire in men of the world, whofe facts are not referred to general principles, but are suggested to their recollection by the familiar topics and occurrences of ordinary life. Nor is it the imputation of tediousness merely, to which the fyftematical thinker muft fubmit from common observers. It is but rarely poffible to explain completely, in a promiscuous fociety, all the various parts of the most fimple theory; and as nothing appears weaker or more abfurd than a theory which is partially stated, it frequently happens, that men of ingenuity, by attempting it, fink, in the vulgar apprehenfion, below the level of ordinary understandings. "Theoriarum vires" (fays Lord Bacon) "in apta et fe mutuo fuftinente "partium harmonia et quadam in orbem demonstra"tione confiftunt, ideoque per partes traditæ infirma " funt."

Before leaving the subject of Casual Memory, it may not be improper to add, that, how much foever it may difqualify for fyftematical speculation, there is a species of loose and rambling compofition, to which it is peculiarly favourable. With fuch performances, it is often pleasant to unbend the mind in folitude, when we are more in the humour for converfation, than for connected thinking.

Ee 4

thinking. Montaigne is unquestionably at the head of this clafs of authors. "What, indeed, are his Effays," (to adopt his own account of them,)" but grotesque "pieces of patchwork, put together without any cer"tain figure; or any order, connexion, or proportion, "but what is accidental * ?”

It is, however, curious, that in confequence of the predominance in his mind of this fpecies of Memory above every other, he is forced to acknowledge his total want of that command over his ideas, which can only be founded on habits of fyftematical arrangement. As the paffage is extremely characteristical of the author, and affords a striking confirmation of fome of the preceding observations, I fhall give it in his own words. "Je ne me tiens pas bien en ma poffeffion et difpofi❝tion: le hazard y a plus de droit que moy: l'occa"fion, la compagnie, le branle même de ma voix tire "plus de mon efprit, que je n'y trouve lors que je fonde " et employe à part moy. Ceci m'advient auffi, que ❝je ne me trouve pas ou je me cherche ; et me trouve plus par rencontre, que par l'inquifition de mon "jugement t."

The differences which I have now pointed out between philosophical and casual Memory, constitute the moft remarkable of all the varieties which the minds of different individuals, confidered in respect to this faculty, present to our obfervation. But there are other varieties, of a less striking nature, the confideration of which may also fuggeft fome useful reflexions.

It was before remarked, that our ideas are frequently

Liv. i. chap. 27.

+ Liv. i. chap. 10. (Du parler prompt ou tardif.)

affociated,

affociated, in confequence of the affociations which take place among their arbitrary figns. Indeed, in the case of all our general speculations, it is difficult to fee in what other way our thoughts can be affociated; for, I before endeavoured to fhew, that, without the use of figns of one kind or another, it would be impoffible for us to make claffes or genera, objects of our attention.

All the figns by which our thoughts are expreffed, are addreffed either to the eye or to the ear; and the impreffions made on these organs, at the time when we first receive an idea, contribute to give us a firmer hold of it. Visible objects (as I obferved in the Chapter on Conception) are remembered more easily than those of any of our other fenfes : and hence it is, that the bulk of mankind are more aided in their recollection by the impreffions made on the eye, than by those made on

Every person must have remarked, in studying the elements of geometry, how much his recollection of the theorems was aided, by the diagrams which are connected with them: and I have little doubt, that' the difficulty which students commonly find to remember the propofitions of the fifth book of Euclid, arifes chiefly from this, that the magnitudes to which they relate, are represented by ftraight lines, which do not make so strong an impreffion on the memory, as the figures which illuftrate the propofitions in the other five books.

This advantage, which the objects of fight naturally have over those of hearing, in the distinctness and the permanence of the impreffions which they make on the memory, continues, and even increases, through life,

in the cafe of the bulk of mankind; because their minds, being but little addicted to general and abstract difquifition, are habitually occupied, either with the immediate perception of fuch objects, or with speculations in which the conception of them is more or less involved; which speculations, fo far as they relate to individual things and individual events, may be carried on with little or no affiftance from language.

The cafe is different with the philofopher, whose habits of abstraction and generalisation lay him continually under a neceffity of employing words as an inftrument of thought. Such habits co-operating with that inattention, which he is apt to contract to things external, must have an obvious tendency to weaken the original powers of recollection and conception with respect to visible objects; and, at the fame time, to ftrengthen the power of retaining propofitions and reafonings expreffed in language. The common. fyftem of education, too, by exercising the memory fo much in the acquifition of grammar rules, and of paffages from the antient authors, contributes greatly, in the cafe of men of letters, to cultivate a capacity for re. taining words.

It is furprising, of what a degree of culture, our power of retaining a fucceffion, even of infignificant founds, is fufceptible. Inftances fometimes occur, of men who are easily able to commit to memory, a long poem, compofed in a language of which they are wholly ignorant; and I have, myself, known more than one inftance, of an individual, who, after having forgotten completely the claffical ftudies of his childhood, was yet able to repeat, with fluency, long paffages from Homer

and

and Virgil, without annexing an idea to the words that he uttered.

This fufceptibility of memory with respect to words, is poffeffed by all men in a very remarkable degree in their early years, and is, indeed, neceffary to enable them to acquire the use of language; but unless it be carefully cultivated afterwards by conftant exercise, it gradually decays as we advance to maturity. The plan of education which is followed in this country, however imperfect in many respects, falls in happily with this arrangement of nature, and stores the mind richly, even in infancy, with intellectual treasures, which are to remain with it through life. The rules of grammar, which comprehend fystems, more or lefs perfect, of the principles of the dead languages, take a permanent hold of the memory, when the understanding is yet unable to comprehend their import; and the claffical remains of antiquity, which, at the time we acquire them, do little more than furnish a gratification to the ear, fupply us with inexhauftible fources of the most refined enjoyment; and, as our various powers gradually unfold themselves, are poured forth, without effort, from the memory, to delight the imagination, and to improve the heart. It cannot be doubted, that a great variety of other articles of useful knowledge, particularly with refpect to geographical and chronological details, might be communicated with advantage to children in the form of memorial lines. It is only in childhood, that fuch details can be learned with facility; and if they were once acquired, and rendered perfectly familiar to the mind, our riper years would be fpared much of that painful and uninteresting labour, which