LECTURE XXXV.

MEMORY.

We have at length travelled through the three great divisions of rhetoric, which, according to the distribution of Aristotle and others of the Grecian masters, comprehend the whole science; invention, disposition, and elocution. The two remaining branches, memory and pronunciation, which have been superadded by more recent teachers, always anxious to add something of their own to the discoveries of real genius, will require no very elaborate investigation; and a single lecture, devoted to each of them, will suf fice for the completion of our course.

The subject for our present consideration is memory; and the order, in which the observations

I have to make concerning it may be arranged, will naturally lead from the inquiry, what it is, to that of its peculiar importance to the public speak

er, which has raised it to this distinction, as one of the constituent parts of the science; and thence to the means, by which its aid may be most effectually secured to the purposes of oratory.

A difficulty occurs at the threshold, which has hitherto proved utterly insuperable to human exertion, and which like others I must leave, as I find it. If, as philosophical inquirers, you were to call upon me to tell you what memory is, my answer could be only the confession of my ignorance. It is an operation of the mind, which has never yet been explained. It has however been much observed and investigated by the poets and philosophers of ancient Greece; and by their suc cessors in modern days. Let us hear what they have said of it; and first for the poets.

Memory, say the poets of the Grecian mythol. ogy, is a goddess. Her name is Mnemosyne. She is the daughter of heaven and of earth; and, impregnated by Jupiter, she was the mother of all

the muses.

This fable, like almost all the others of the Grecian theogony, is philosophical. Memory

was the daughter of heaven and of earth. The faculty, which is personified by this allegorical being, is a special privilege, partaking of a celestial nature. But it is enjoyed by man, and in an inferior degree by some of the brute creation. Mnemosyne therefore is descended on one part from heaven, and on the other from earth.

Mnemosyne was the mother of all the muses. These were the patronesses of all the arts and sciences, the inspirers of human genius, and the guardians of learning. They were begotten by Jupiter, the best and greatest of the gods, the emblem of productive power and energy. They were born on the Pierian mountain, the region of fruitfulness; as is indicated by the etymology of the name. The active energy of the intellect must generate, but memory must bear the faculties, which adorn and dignify the human character. Such were the imaginations of the poets. They were justly honorary to the merits of memory; but they did not suppose her mother to the muse of eloquence alone.

And now for the philosophers.

Let us take

the doctrine of Aristotle in the words of the learn

ed Harris, from the third book of his Hermes.

"Besides," says he, "the distinguishing of sensation from imagination, there are two other faculties of the soul, which, from their nearer alliance, ought carefully to be distinguished from it; and these are мnhмh and anamNHEIZ; memory and recollection.

"When we view some relict of sensation, reposed within us, without thinking of its rise, or referring it to any sensible object, this is fancy or imagination.

"When we view some such relict, and refer it withal to that sensible object, which in time past was its cause and original, this is memory.

"Lastly the road, which leads to memory through a series of ideas, however connected, whether rationally or casually, this is recollection.

"When we contemplate a portrait, without thinking of whom it is the portrait, such contemplation is analogous to fancy. When we view it with reference to the original, whom it represents, such contemplation is analogous to memory."

Quinctilian seems afraid to meet the question, what memory is; but adopts this theory of Aristotle.

"I do not think it necessary," says he, "to stay and inquire what constitutes memory; but