ing ridiculous, and insupportably tiresome to men of sense and science. But let a woman know any one thing completely, and she will have sufficient understanding to learn more, and to apply what she has been taught so as to interest men of generosity and genius in her favour. The knowledge of the general principles of any science is very different from superficial knowledge of the science; perhaps, from not attending to this distinction, or from not understanding it, many have failed in female education. Some attempt will be made to mark this distinction practically, when we come to speak of the cultivation of the memory, invention, and judgment. No intelligent preceptress will, it is hoped, find any difficulty in the application of the observations they may meet with in the chapters on Imagination, Sympathy and Sensibility, Vanity and Temper. The masculine pronoun, he, has been used for grammatical convenience, not at all because we agree with the prejudiced and uncourteous grammarian, who asserts, "that "the masculine is the more worthy gender.

CHAPTER XXI.

MEMORY AND INVENTION.

BEFORE We bestow many years of time and pains upon any object, it may be prudent to afford a few minutes previously to ascertain its precise value. Many persons have a vague idea of the great value of memory, and, without analysing their opinion, they resolve to cultivate the memories of their children, as much, and as soon as possible. So far from having determined the value of this talent, we shall find, that it will be difficult to give a popular definition of a good memory. Some people call that a good memory which retains the greatest number of ideas for the longest time. Others prefer a recollective, to a retentive memory, and value not so much the number, as the selection of facts; not so much the mass, or even the antiquity, of accumu

lated treasure, as the power of producing current specie for immediate use.-Memory is sometimes spoken of as if it were a faculty admirable in itself, without any union with the other powers of the mind. Amongst those who allow that memory has no independent claim to regard, there are yet many who believe, that a superior degree of it is essential to the successful exercise of the higher faculties, such as judgment and invention. The degree in which it is useful to those powers, has not, however, been determined. Those who are governed in their opinions by precedent and authority, can produce many learned names, to prove that memory was held in the highest estimation amongst the great men of antiquity; it was cultivated with much anxiety in their public institutions, and in their private education. But there were many circumstances which formerly contributed to make a great memory essential to a great man. In civil and military employments, amongst the ancients, it was in a high degree requisite. Generals were expected to know by heart the names of the soldiers in their armies ; demagogues, who hoped to please the peo

ple, were expected to know the names of all their fellow citizens. Orators, who did not speak extempore, were obliged to get their long orations by rote. Those who studied science or philosophy were obliged to cultivate their memory with incessant care, because, if they frequented the schools for instruction, they treasured up the sayings of the masters of different sects, and learned their doctrines only by oral instruction. Manuscripts were frequently got by heart by those who were eager to secure the knowledge they contained, and who had not opportunities of recurring to the originals. It is not surprising, therefore, that memory, to which so much was trusted, should have been held in such high esteem.

At the revival of literature in Europe, before the discovery of the art of printing, it was scarcely possible to make any progress in the literature of the age, without possessing a retentive memory. A mạn

who had read a few manuscripts, and could repeat them, was a wonder and a treasure; he could travel from place to place, and live by his learning; he was a circu

* V. Plutarch, Quintilian.

lating library to a nation, and the more books he could carry in his head the better; he was certain of an admiring audience if he could repeat what Aristotle or Saint Jerome had written; and he had far more encouragement to engrave the words of others on his memory, than to invent or judge for himself.

In the twelfth century, above six hundred scholars assembled in the forests of Champagne to hear the lectures of the learned Abeillard; they made themselves huts of the boughs of trees, and in this new academic grove were satisfied to go almost without the necessaries of life. In the specimens of Abeillard's composition, which are handed down to us, we may discover proofs. of his having been vain of a surprising memory; it seems to have been the superior faculty of his mind; his six hundred pupils could carry away with them only so much. of his learning as they could get by heart during his course of lectures; and he who had the best memory must have been best paid for his journey.*

Berrington's History of the Lives of Abeillard and Heloisa, p. 173.