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Practical Memory Training
'Theron Q. Dumont'William Walker Atkinson
(1916)
Lesson 5 Wonderful Instances
In the history of the study of memory, the various writers and teachers, particularly the earlier ones, are found to have expended much time, labor and pains in the gathering together of well known instances of individuals who have possessed memories far above the normal. Ancient history contains many celebrated examples of this kind, and the various authorities on the subject have added many as remarkable cases to the list.
I have thought it well to direct your attention to some of the more celebrated cases of this kind, in the course of these lessons. But I wish to be distinctly understood as presenting these solely for the purpose of informing the student of the wonderful possibilities of the memory under favorable conditions. I have no desire to hold up these cases as examples to be followed by the student. In fact, I earnestly advise the student to refrain from attempting to duplicate these unusual feats.
Except in a few cases, it will be found that these individuals have been out of the normal class—many of them undoubtedly coming under the category of "freaks." I wish my student to avoid all freak tendencies. I wish to develop them in all-around memory power, and not in any lop-sided fashion.
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... of his health had impaired his memory, he forgot nothing of what he had done, read, or thought in any part of his natural age."
Hamilton makes the following similar statement, including Grotius: "Grotius and Pascal [1, 2] forgot nothing they had ever read or thought." Cardinal Mezzofanti [3] is declared to have had a perfect acquaintance with over one hundred languages, or variations of languages, and was proud of claiming that he never forgot a word that he had once learned, but his wonderful ability seems to have been confined to this one particular field of memory, rather than having been general as was the case with Grotius and Pascal.
[1. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/
[2. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/
[3. wikipedia.org/wiki/
John Leyden (1775-1811)
Leyden [4] had a wonderful memory along several lines. It is related of him that after he had gone to Calcutta a case arose in which the exact words of a certain Act of Parliament came into question. No copy of the Act being found, Leyden undertook to repeat it from memory, he having carefully studied it while in London. His transcript was so perfect, that when a printed copy was forwarded from England, some time afterward, it was found to be identical, word for word with Leyden's dictated copy. Abercrombie, writing of Leyden, says: "I am informed through a gentleman who was intimately acquainted with him, that he could repeat correctly a long act of parliament, or any similar document after having once read it."
[4. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/
Galton [5] mentions a Unitarian minister named Bidder, who had an extraordinary memory for Biblical texts, and who is said to have been able to give chapter and verse of almost any passage in the Bible; or, on having chapter and verse mentioned to him, he could repeat the passage itself.
[5. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/
Dr. Porson had a remarkable memory for books which he had read. It is related of him that on one occasion he called on a friend whom he found reading Thucydides. His friend asked him the meaning of some word, and Porson immediately repeated the context. When asked how he knew the particular passage that his friend had been reading, Porson replied: "Because the word occurs only twice in Thucydides; once on the right-hand page in the edition which you are using, and once on the left. I observed on which side you looked, and accordingly I knew to which passage you referred."
We find countless instances recorded of the wonderful feats of the celebrated chess players, of the last century and the present, in which they, being blindfolded are able to play a large number of games simultaneously, remembering perfectly the position of the men on the numerous boards, from time to time, during, the progress of the games. It is said of these men that they picture each board in their memory, and keep the changing positions of the chessmen clearly in memory as each board is brought in succession into the conscious field. There are many instances of persons, skilled card players, who can remember each card in the order in which it is played, and who can, from memory describe correctly each stage of the game afterwards.
Akin to this is the feat often seen, in which the card player repeats correctly the exact order in which a full pack has been dealt out before him. It is no uncommon thing among chess players to hear a game described, move after move, long after the close of the game. Pages could be filled with recorded instances of this kind. The same remarkable feats of this class are related of celebrated players of almost any well known game in which the concentrated attention of the player is obtained. The principle is the same in all of such cases.
[David] Kay relates an interesting story of Dr. Moffat, [6] the distinguished missionary, as follows: "After preaching a long sermon to a number of African savages he saw at a distance a simple-looking young man holding forth to a number of people who were all attention. On approaching, he found to his surprise that the young savage was preaching his sermon over again, with uncommon precision and with great solemnity, imitating as neady as he could the manner and gestures of the original."
[6. wikipedia.org/wiki/
This, of course was an instance of a high degree of parrot-memory, being merely a remarkable reproduction of a series of sounds and movements, without any attempt to grasp the meaning of the words, or the ideas sought to be conveyed. The feat is remarkable enough, but it should be placed in the proper category.
A number of the authorities cite the well-known instance of a celebrated composer, who when a mere lad listened to the rendition of a magnificent Mass in a monastery. The monks never allowed the score to leave their own hands, and guarded it jealously from all other musicians, though frequently besought to give it to the world. The lad had such a wonderfully developed memory for music, and such a sensitive musical ear, that upon his return to his room he reproduced the entire Mass to paper, making not a single mistake in the entire score. Note for note the entire Mass was reproduced with absolute correctness. It is gratifying to learn that the monks were so impressed by the feat that they forgave the theft. The history of music gives us a number of similar instances in which page after page of difficult musical numbers have been reproduced after but a single hearing. In one's wonder at the unusual power of retention and reproduction, one must not forget the equally wonderful sensitiveness to impression, and the sustained concentrated interest and attention on the part of the hearers, which were necessary to make the original records.
An interesting example of the development of memory along certain lines, though commonly overlooked, is that of every educated Chinese, for he must remember thousands of arbitrary symbols of words which take the place of an alphabet. Remember, we have only twenty-six characters to remember in our alphabet, our list of many thousands o£ words being merely a series of combinations of these twenty-six characters. But the Chinese have no alphabet, each word being indicated by a different arbitrary symbol which must be carefully impressed upon the memory in order to be understood and read. The name and symbol must be linked together in the mind, in order to make writing or reading possible. And yet the simple schoolboy of China is able to read and write many thousands of words in this way, while the educated man of that country must multiply the schoolboy's list by a large figure.
Imagine a Western child or man doing this wonderful thing. And yet it is possible to any one, providing he begins at an early age and adds new symbols each day, as does the Chinaman. It is interesting to note that the young children in our Western schools are now being taught, in a degree at least, to read in a similar way; that is to say by the shape of the word, rather than by spelling out the word in the old way.
The early training of the memory of the Chinese and Japanese, made necessary by the absence of an alphabet, has given these people wonderful memories along certain lines. It is no uncommon thing for Chinese or Japanese priests to recite volume after volume of their sacred books. A Chinese who cannot recite the Teachings of Confucius from memory is regarded as lacking in education—almost illiterate, in fact.
A celebrated Japanese historian, Hirata Atsutane, [7] is said to have compiled his great work on the myths and legends of his country, consisting of numerous volumes, without referring to a single book from which he had drawn his information originally. In other words, he had impressed upon his memory all that he had read on the subject for many years, and then was able to reproduce the same, faithfully and accurately, giving not only the stories but also their source and his authority for using them.
[7. (1776-1843) en.wikipedia.org/
This history of China relates that over two thousand years ago, a certain Emperor of that country became jealous of the glory of the rulers who had preceded him, and of the history and achievements of their reigns. He became filled with a desire that everything in his country should date back to his reign. He wished to wipe out the slate of history, and begin all over. And, in accordance with this wish he promulgated a decree that every written or graven record in the kingdom should be immediately destroyed. All historical, religious and philosophical works were burned or otherwise destroyed. Even the work of Confucius shared the common fate.
The result is that the history of China preceding that date exists today only in the shape of tradition, but even these traditions are very full of detail. The philosophies and religious teachings however, having been committed to memory by the learned men of the empire, were reproduced from memory, after the death of the emperor, and exist today in their original form so far as known.
The work of reproducing the entire works of Confucius was by common consent placed in the hands of an eminent sage, noted as an authority on the Confucian teachings. The old man is said to have reproduced, entirely from memory, the entire body of the Confucian teaching as it exists today.
It is told that long years afterward, an important volume of Confucius' teaching was discovered in an old monastery, having escaped the destroying fire. When compared with the reproduced version of the old sage, it was discovered that the old man had not missed a single word—his memory was absolutely perfect. The great epic poems of the ancient Greeks were transmitted from teacher to scholar in this way, for many generations. The sagas of the Norsemen were carried along in the same way.
It is taught that the religious philosophies of ancient India and Persia were transmitted from sage to disciple entirely by word of mouth, and the memories of generations of pupils carried the precious words. It is difficult to realize that almost the entire body of the ancient histories and philosophies existed for centuries before writing was employed—the memory taking the place of parchment and graven stone.
In fact, the inner teachings of many of the ancient religions and philosophies are said to have never been committed to writing or print, and even to this day are transmitted to the chosen few solely by the mouth-to-ear method. Judging from the facts of the past, there is no reason to doubt this last statement, so far as the Oriental countries are concerned. Only the exoteric teachings exist in printed form, it is claimed by good authorities—the esoteric is imprinted only on the minds of the devout and loyal devotees in the temples, who are sworn to silence, except to the few chosen disciples.