Memory: How to Develop, Train, and Use It — John Shaqi
Memory: How to Develop, Train, and Use ItAtkinson, William Walker
Science
Memory: How to Develop, Train, and Use It
Atkinson, William Walker
Memory
But even the above phases of memory represent but a small segment of its
complete circle. Memory is more than "a good memory"--it is the means
whereby we perform the largest share of our mental work. As Bacon has
said: "All knowledge is but remembrance." And Emerson: "Memory is a
primary and fundamental faculty, without which none other can work: the
cement, the bitumen, the matrix in which the other faculties are
embedded. Without it all life and thought were an unrelated succession."
And Burke: "There is no faculty of the mind which can bring its energy
into effect unless the memory be stored with ideas for it to look upon."
And Basile: "Memory is the cabinet of imagination, the treasury of
reason, the registry of conscience, and the council chamber of thought."
Kant pronounced memory to be "the most wonderful of the faculties." Kay,
one of the best authorities on the subject has said, regarding it:
"Unless the mind possessed the power of treasuring up and recalling its
past experiences, no knowledge of any kind could be acquired. If every
sensation, thought, or emotion passed entirely from the mind the moment
it ceased to be present, then it would be as if it had not been; and it
could not be recognized or named should it happen to return. Such an one
would not only be without knowledge,--without experience gathered from
the past,--but without purpose, aim, or plan regarding the future, for
these imply knowledge and require memory. Even voluntary motion, or
motion for a purpose, could have no existence without memory, for memory
is involved in every purpose. Not only the learning of the scholar, but
the inspiration of the poet, the genius of the painter, the heroism of
the warrior, all depend upon memory. Nay, even consciousness itself
could have no existence without memory for every act of consciousness
involves a change from a past state to a present, and did the past state
vanish the moment it was past, there could be no consciousness of
change. Memory, therefore, may be said to be involved in all conscious
existence--a property of every conscious being!"
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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