1
00:00:00,440 --> 00:00:06,480
Speaker 1: Celebrated cases of memory. In order that the student may

2
00:00:06,519 --> 00:00:10,640
appreciate the marvelous extent of development possible to the memory,

3
00:00:11,119 --> 00:00:13,759
we have thought it advisable to mention a number of

4
00:00:13,800 --> 00:00:18,879
celebrated cases, past and present. In so doing, we have

5
00:00:18,960 --> 00:00:22,679
no desire to hold up these cases as worthy of imitation,

6
00:00:23,280 --> 00:00:27,640
for they are exceptional and not necessary in everyday life.

7
00:00:28,039 --> 00:00:31,320
We mention them merely to show to what wonderful extent

8
00:00:31,519 --> 00:00:37,240
development along these lines is possible. In India. In the past,

9
00:00:37,799 --> 00:00:41,399
the sacred books were committed to memory and handed down

10
00:00:41,479 --> 00:00:45,840
from teacher to student for ages, and even today it

11
00:00:45,920 --> 00:00:48,439
is no uncommon thing for the student to be able

12
00:00:48,479 --> 00:00:53,320
to repeat word for word some voluminous religious work equal

13
00:00:53,320 --> 00:00:58,000
in extent to the New Testament. Max Muller states that

14
00:00:58,039 --> 00:01:03,000
the entire text and glossary of Panini's Sanskrit grammar, equal

15
00:01:03,079 --> 00:01:07,040
in extent to the entire Bible, were handed down orally

16
00:01:07,159 --> 00:01:12,159
for several centuries before being committed to writing. There are

17
00:01:12,200 --> 00:01:15,680
Brahmins today who have committed to memory and who can

18
00:01:15,719 --> 00:01:20,319
repeat at will the entire collection of religious poems known

19
00:01:20,359 --> 00:01:25,480
as the Mahabarata, consisting of over three hundred thousand slocas

20
00:01:25,719 --> 00:01:31,200
or verses. Leland states that the Slavonian minstrels of the

21
00:01:31,239 --> 00:01:36,519
present day have by heart, with remarkable accuracy, immensely long

22
00:01:36,599 --> 00:01:41,400
epic poems. I have found the same among Algonquin Indians,

23
00:01:41,480 --> 00:01:46,400
whose sagas or mythic legends are interminable, and yet are

24
00:01:46,439 --> 00:01:51,280
committed word by word accurately. I have heard in England

25
00:01:51,359 --> 00:01:55,959
of a lady ninety years of age, whose memory was miraculous,

26
00:01:56,480 --> 00:02:00,400
and of which extraordinary instances are narrated by her friends.

27
00:02:01,680 --> 00:02:05,000
She attributed it to the fact that, when young, she

28
00:02:05,079 --> 00:02:07,439
had been made to learn a verse from the Bible

29
00:02:07,560 --> 00:02:13,759
every day, and then constantly review it. As her memory improved,

30
00:02:14,120 --> 00:02:17,479
she learned more, the result being that in the end

31
00:02:17,840 --> 00:02:21,120
she could repeat from memory any verse or chapter called

32
00:02:21,159 --> 00:02:25,240
for in the whole scripture. It is related that Mithridates,

33
00:02:25,479 --> 00:02:29,080
the ancient warrior king, knew the name of every soldier

34
00:02:29,080 --> 00:02:35,080
in his great army and conversed fluently in twenty two dialects.

35
00:02:35,199 --> 00:02:39,240
Pliny relates that Charmides could repeat the contents of every

36
00:02:39,280 --> 00:02:44,960
book in his large library. Hortensius, the Roman orator, had

37
00:02:44,960 --> 00:02:48,719
a remarkable memory, which enabled him to retain and recollect

38
00:02:48,800 --> 00:02:52,800
the exact words of his opponent's argument, without making a

39
00:02:52,840 --> 00:02:57,960
single notation on a wager. He attended a great auction sale,

40
00:02:58,039 --> 00:03:02,080
which lasted over an entire day, and then called off

41
00:03:02,120 --> 00:03:05,800
in their proper order every object sold, the name of

42
00:03:05,840 --> 00:03:10,840
its purchaser and the price thereof. Seneca is said to

43
00:03:10,879 --> 00:03:15,599
have acquired the ability to memorize several thousand proper names,

44
00:03:15,639 --> 00:03:17,800
and to repeat them in the order in which they

45
00:03:17,840 --> 00:03:21,199
had been given him, and also to reverse the order

46
00:03:21,479 --> 00:03:26,000
and call off the list backward. He also accomplished the

47
00:03:26,039 --> 00:03:29,439
feat of listening to several hundred persons, each of whom

48
00:03:29,520 --> 00:03:33,520
gave him a verse, memorizing the same as they proceeded,

49
00:03:34,039 --> 00:03:37,360
and then repeating them word for word in the exact

50
00:03:37,560 --> 00:03:41,680
order of their delivery, and then reversing the process with

51
00:03:41,840 --> 00:03:48,120
complete success. Eusebius stated that only the memory of Esdras

52
00:03:48,520 --> 00:03:51,879
saved the Hebrew scriptures to the world, for when the

53
00:03:51,960 --> 00:03:56,560
Kaldians destroyed the manuscripts, Esdras was able to repeat them

54
00:03:56,840 --> 00:04:02,080
word by word to the scribes who then them. Though

55
00:04:02,159 --> 00:04:05,680
Mohammedan scholars are able to repeat the entire text of

56
00:04:05,719 --> 00:04:11,840
the Koran letter, perfect Scallager committed the entire text of

57
00:04:11,879 --> 00:04:16,680
the Iliad and the Odyssey in three weeks. Ben Johnson

58
00:04:16,759 --> 00:04:18,800
is said to have been able to repeat all of

59
00:04:18,800 --> 00:04:23,560
his own works from memory with the greatest ads. Bulwark

60
00:04:23,600 --> 00:04:28,000
could repeat the Odes of Horace from memory. Pascal could

61
00:04:28,079 --> 00:04:31,800
repeat the entire Bible from beginning to end, as well

62
00:04:31,800 --> 00:04:36,199
as being able to recall any given paragraph, verse, line,

63
00:04:36,439 --> 00:04:40,639
or chapter. Lander is said to have read a book

64
00:04:40,720 --> 00:04:44,240
but once, when he would dispose of it, having impressed

65
00:04:44,240 --> 00:04:48,759
it upon his memory, to be recalled years after if necessary.

66
00:04:50,120 --> 00:04:54,759
Byron could recite all of his own poems. Buffin could

67
00:04:54,800 --> 00:04:59,319
repeat his works from beginning to end. Bryant possessed the

68
00:04:59,319 --> 00:05:04,560
same ability to repeat his own works. Bishop Sanderson could

69
00:05:04,600 --> 00:05:08,720
repeat the greater part of Juvenile and Persius, all of Tully,

70
00:05:09,040 --> 00:05:14,720
and all of Horace. Fedisovha, a Russian peasant, could repeat

71
00:05:14,800 --> 00:05:19,720
over twenty five thousand poems, folk songs, legends, fairy tales,

72
00:05:19,959 --> 00:05:24,519
war stories, etc. When she was over seventy years of age.

73
00:05:25,839 --> 00:05:31,040
The celebrated blind alec An aged Scottish beggar could repeat

74
00:05:31,120 --> 00:05:34,279
any verse in the Bible called for, as well as

75
00:05:34,360 --> 00:05:38,800
the entire text of all the chapters and books. The

76
00:05:38,839 --> 00:05:42,720
newspapers a few years ago contained the accounts of a

77
00:05:42,759 --> 00:05:46,319
man named Clark, who lived in New York City. He

78
00:05:46,439 --> 00:05:48,399
is said to have been able to give the exact

79
00:05:48,560 --> 00:05:52,160
presidential vote in each state of the Union since the

80
00:05:52,240 --> 00:05:56,519
first election. He could give the population in every town

81
00:05:56,600 --> 00:05:59,480
of any size in the world, either present or in

82
00:05:59,560 --> 00:06:02,920
the past, providing there was a record of the same.

83
00:06:03,959 --> 00:06:06,920
He could quote from Shakespeare for hours at a time,

84
00:06:07,480 --> 00:06:11,720
beginning at any given point in any play. He could

85
00:06:11,720 --> 00:06:15,439
recite the entire text of the Iliad in the original Greek.

86
00:06:17,160 --> 00:06:20,879
The historical case of the unnamed Dutchman is known to

87
00:06:20,959 --> 00:06:24,480
all students of memory. This man is said to have

88
00:06:24,480 --> 00:06:27,680
been able to take up a fresh newspaper, to read

89
00:06:27,720 --> 00:06:32,040
it all through, including the advertisements, and then to repeat

90
00:06:32,079 --> 00:06:36,959
its contents word for word, from beginning to end. On

91
00:06:36,959 --> 00:06:40,160
one occasion, he is said to have heaped wonder upon

92
00:06:40,319 --> 00:06:44,759
wonder by repeating the contents of the paper backward, beginning

93
00:06:44,800 --> 00:06:49,519
with the last word and ending with the first lion.

94
00:06:49,759 --> 00:06:53,480
The English actor is said to have duplicated this feat

95
00:06:53,800 --> 00:06:58,240
using a large London paper and including the market quotations,

96
00:06:58,879 --> 00:07:03,639
reports of the debate in Parliament, the railroad timetables, and

97
00:07:03,720 --> 00:07:08,600
the advertisements. A London waiter is said to have performed

98
00:07:08,600 --> 00:07:13,079
a similar feat on a wager, he memorizing and correctly

99
00:07:13,120 --> 00:07:17,439
repeating the contents of an eight page paper. One of

100
00:07:17,480 --> 00:07:22,120
the most remarkable instances of extraordinary memory known to history

101
00:07:22,639 --> 00:07:26,920
is that of the child Christian Miniken, when less than

102
00:07:27,000 --> 00:07:30,639
four years of age, he could repeat the entire Bible,

103
00:07:31,199 --> 00:07:40,759
two hundred hymns, five thousand Latin words, and much ecclesiastical history, theory, dogmas, arguments,

104
00:07:40,839 --> 00:07:46,199
and an encyclopedic quantity of theological literature. He is said

105
00:07:46,240 --> 00:07:49,439
to have practically retained every word that was read to him.

106
00:07:50,240 --> 00:07:55,319
His case was abnormal, and he died at an early age.

107
00:07:56,000 --> 00:07:58,680
John Stuart Mill is said to have acquired a fair

108
00:07:58,800 --> 00:08:01,959
knowledge of Greek at the age of three years, and

109
00:08:02,040 --> 00:08:06,600
to have memorized Hume, Gibbon and other historians at the

110
00:08:06,639 --> 00:08:13,720
age of eight. Shortly after, he mastered and memorized Herodotus, Xenophon,

111
00:08:14,199 --> 00:08:21,079
some of Socrates, and six of Plato's dialogues. Richard Porson

112
00:08:21,199 --> 00:08:29,839
is said to have memorized the entire text of Homer, Horace, Cicero, Virgil, Livy, Shakespeare, Milton,

113
00:08:30,040 --> 00:08:33,120
and Gibbon. He is said to have been able to

114
00:08:33,159 --> 00:08:37,679
memorize any ordinary novel at one careful reading, and to

115
00:08:37,759 --> 00:08:41,519
have several times performed the feat of memorizing the entire

116
00:08:41,679 --> 00:08:47,200
contents of some English monthly review. De Rassi was able

117
00:08:47,240 --> 00:08:50,679
to perform the feat of repeating one hundred lines from

118
00:08:50,720 --> 00:08:54,679
any of the four great Italian poets, provided he was

119
00:08:54,720 --> 00:08:58,519
given a line at random from their works, his hundred

120
00:08:58,559 --> 00:09:03,840
lines following immediately after the given line. Of course, this

121
00:09:03,919 --> 00:09:07,759
feat required the memorizing of the entire works of those poets,

122
00:09:08,159 --> 00:09:11,039
and the ability to take up the repetition from any

123
00:09:11,120 --> 00:09:15,440
given point, the latter feature being as remarkable as the former.

124
00:09:17,360 --> 00:09:20,559
There have been cases of printers being able to repeat

125
00:09:20,799 --> 00:09:24,879
word for word books of which they had set the type.

126
00:09:25,039 --> 00:09:28,200
Professor Lawson was able to teach his classes of the

127
00:09:28,240 --> 00:09:33,200
Scriptures without referring to the book. He claimed that if

128
00:09:33,240 --> 00:09:36,799
the entire stock of Bibles were to be destroyed, he

129
00:09:36,840 --> 00:09:42,080
could restore the book entire from his memory. Reverend Thomas

130
00:09:42,080 --> 00:09:44,279
Fuller is said to have been able to walk down

131
00:09:44,320 --> 00:09:48,080
a long London street, reading the names of the signs

132
00:09:48,080 --> 00:09:51,600
on both sides, then recalling them in the order in

133
00:09:51,639 --> 00:09:55,320
which they had been seen, and then by reversing the order.

134
00:09:56,600 --> 00:09:59,720
There are many cases on record of persons who memorized

135
00:09:59,720 --> 00:10:03,519
the w words of every known tongue of civilization, as

136
00:10:03,559 --> 00:10:07,600
well as a great number of dialects, languages, and tongues

137
00:10:07,639 --> 00:10:13,879
of savage races. Bassuet had memorized the entire Bible, and Homer,

138
00:10:14,120 --> 00:10:21,240
Horace and Virgil Beside. Neibour, the historian was once employed

139
00:10:21,279 --> 00:10:24,799
in a government office, the records of which were destroyed.

140
00:10:25,480 --> 00:10:30,320
He thereupon restored the entire contents of the Book of Records,

141
00:10:30,360 --> 00:10:34,639
which he had written, all from his memory. Asa Gray

142
00:10:34,759 --> 00:10:39,039
knew the names of ten thousand plants, Milton had a

143
00:10:39,120 --> 00:10:44,000
vocabulary of twenty thousand words, and Shakespeare one of twenty

144
00:10:44,039 --> 00:10:49,440
five thousand. Cuvier and Agasy are said to have memorized

145
00:10:49,600 --> 00:10:56,360
lists of several thousand species and varieties of animals. Mayobichi,

146
00:10:56,600 --> 00:10:59,720
the librarian of Florence, is said to have known the

147
00:10:59,720 --> 00:11:03,440
local of every volume in the large library of which

148
00:11:03,480 --> 00:11:06,840
he was in charge, and the complete list of works

149
00:11:06,919 --> 00:11:12,000
along certain lines in all the other great libraries. He

150
00:11:12,080 --> 00:11:14,919
once claimed that he was able to repeat titles of

151
00:11:15,000 --> 00:11:18,279
over a half million of books in many languages and

152
00:11:18,480 --> 00:11:23,759
upon many subjects. In nearly every walk of life are

153
00:11:23,799 --> 00:11:27,559
to be found persons with memories wonderfully developed along the

154
00:11:27,639 --> 00:11:33,240
lines of their particular occupation. Librarians possess this faculty to

155
00:11:33,279 --> 00:11:37,639
an unusual degree. Skilled workers in the finer lines of

156
00:11:37,720 --> 00:11:42,320
manufacture also manifest a wonderful memory for the tiny parts

157
00:11:42,320 --> 00:11:48,039
of the manufactured article, etc. Bank officers have a wonderful

158
00:11:48,080 --> 00:11:52,320
memory for names and faces. Some lawyers are able to

159
00:11:52,360 --> 00:11:56,320
recall cases quoted in the authorities years after they have

160
00:11:56,360 --> 00:12:00,600
read them. Perhaps the most common, and yet the most

161
00:12:00,720 --> 00:12:05,440
remarkable instances of memorizing in one's daily work is to

162
00:12:05,480 --> 00:12:09,720
be found in the cases of the theatrical profession. In

163
00:12:09,759 --> 00:12:13,240
some cases, members of stock company must not only be

164
00:12:13,279 --> 00:12:15,559
able to repeat the lines of the play they are

165
00:12:15,600 --> 00:12:19,200
engaged in acting at the time, but also the one

166
00:12:19,200 --> 00:12:23,080
that they are rehearsing for the following week, and possibly

167
00:12:23,320 --> 00:12:27,399
the one for the second week. And in repertoire companies,

168
00:12:27,600 --> 00:12:30,840
the actors are required to be letter perfect in a

169
00:12:30,879 --> 00:12:36,039
dozen or more plays. Surely a wonderful feat, and yet

170
00:12:36,200 --> 00:12:39,159
one so common that no notice is given to it.

171
00:12:40,600 --> 00:12:44,240
In some of the celebrated cases, the degree of recollection

172
00:12:44,440 --> 00:12:49,000
manifested is undoubtedly abnormal, but in the majority of the

173
00:12:49,080 --> 00:12:52,080
cases it may be seen that the result has been

174
00:12:52,120 --> 00:12:56,919
obtained only by the use of natural methods and persistent exercise.

175
00:12:58,440 --> 00:13:01,879
That wonderful memories may be acquired by anyone who will

176
00:13:01,919 --> 00:13:05,799
devote to the task. Patience, time, and work is a

177
00:13:05,919 --> 00:13:10,360
fact generally acknowledged by all students of the subject. It

178
00:13:10,440 --> 00:13:13,720
is not a gift, but something to be won by

179
00:13:13,799 --> 00:13:16,720
effort and work along scientific lines.