te their time in vain studies and fruitless
inventions. Even if the cultivation of the memory were our grand
object, this plan of education will succeed. When the Abbe de
Longuerue, whose prodigious memory we have formerly mentioned, was
asked by the Marquis d'Argenson, how he managed to arrange and retain
in his head every thing that entered it, and to recollect every thing
when wanted? The Abbe answered:

"Sir, the elements of every science must be learned whilst we are very
young; the first principles of every language; the a b c, as I may
say, of every kind of knowledge: this is not difficult in youth,
especially as it is not necessary to penetrate far; simple notions are
sufficient; when once these are acquired, every thing we read
afterwards, finds its proper place."

FOOTNOTES:

[39] V. Plutarch. Quintilian.

[40] Berington's History of the Lives of Abeillard and Heloisa, page
173.

[41] Eloge de M. L'Abbe d'Alary.

[42] Marquis d'Argenson's Essays, page 385.

[43] D'Alembert's Eloge de M. d'Alary.

[44] Curiosities of Literature, vol. ii. page 145.

[45] Priestley on Electricity, page 317.

[46] Fuller, author of the Worthies of England. See Curiosities of
Literature, vol. i.

[47] V. Chapter on Books, and on Geography.

[48] Dr. Darwin. Zoonomia.

[49] At the end of the History of Vision.

[50] "Nov. 7, 1749. Electrical fluid agrees with lightning in these
particulars. 1. Giving light. 2. Colour of the light. 3. Crooked
direction. 4. Swift motion. 5. Being conducted by metals. 6. Crack or
noise in exploding. 7. Subsisting in water or ice. 8. Rending bodies
it passes through. 9. Destroying animals. 10. Melting metals. 11.
Firing inflammable substances. 12. Sulphureous smell. The electric
fluid is attracted by points. We do not know whether this property is
in lightning. But since they agree in all the particulars wherein we
can already compare them, is it not probable they agree likewise in
this? Let the experiment be made."

_Dr. Franklin's Letters, page 322._

[51] Helvetius, "Sur l'Esprit."

[52] See preface to L'Esprit des Romains considere.

[53] See the account in the Monthly Review.

[54] He had tried to sing it to the tune of "Hope, thou nurse of young
desire."

[55] Priestley on Vision, vol. i. page 23.

[56] V. Hooke's Posthumous Works.

[57] Hooke's Mycrographia, p. 62.

CHAPTER XXII.

TASTE AND IMAGINATION.

Figurative language seems to have confounded the