Memory: How to Develop, Train, and Use ItAtkinson, William Walker
Science
Memory: How to Develop, Train, and Use It
Atkinson, William Walker
Memory
instruction carefully until you know every point of it. Then, most
important of all--_get to work_. The rest is a matter of practice,
practice, practice, and rehearsal. Go back to the chapters from time to
time, and refresh your mind regarding the details. Re-read each chapter
at intervals. Make the book your own, in every sense of the word, by
absorbing its contents.
CHAPTER III.
CELEBRATED CASES OF MEMORY.
In order that the student may appreciate the marvelous extent of
development possible to the memory, we have thought it advisable to
mention a number of celebrated cases, past and present. In so doing we
have no desire to hold up these cases as worthy of imitation, for they
are exceptional and not necessary in every-day life. We mention them
merely to show to what wonderful extent development along these lines is
possible.
In India, in the past, the sacred books were committed to memory, and
handed down from teacher to student, for ages. And even to-day it is no
uncommon thing for the student to be able to repeat, word for word, some
voluminous religious work equal in extent to the New Testament. Max
Muller states that the entire text and glossary of Panini's Sanscrit
grammar, equal in extent to the entire Bible, were handed down orally
for several centuries before being committed to writing. There are
Brahmins to-day who have committed to memory, and who can repeat at
will, the entire collection of religious poems known as the
_Mahabarata_, consisting of over 300,000 _slokas_ or verses. Leland
states that, "the Slavonian minstrels of the present day have by heart
with remarkable accuracy immensely long epic poems. I have found the
same among Algonquin Indians whose sagas or mythic legends are
interminable, and yet are committed word by word accurately. I have
heard in England of a lady ninety years of age whose memory was
miraculous, and of which extraordinary instances are narrated by her
friends. She attributed it to the fact that when young she had been made
to learn a verse from the Bible every day, and then constantly review
it. As her memory improved, she learned more, the result being that in
the end she could repeat from memory any verse or chapter called for in
the whole Scripture."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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