that of building houses without
foundations. No one suspects or dreams what mighty powers there are
latent in us all, or how easily they may be developed. It would not be
so reprehensible if men entirely neglected the subject, but they are
always working hard and spending millions on the old system, and will
not even make the least experiment to test a new theory. One reason
for this is the old belief that we are all born with a certain quantum
of "gifts," as for example memory, capacity, patience, _et cetera_,
all more or less limited, and in reality not to be enlarged or
improved. The idea is _natural_, because we see that there are very
great differences, hereditary or otherwise, in children. But it is
false. So we go to work to fill up the quantum of memory as soon as
possible by violent cramming, and in like manner tax to the utmost all
the mental faculties without making the least effort to prepare,
enlarge or strengthen them.

I shall not live to see it, but a time will come when this preparation
of the mental faculties will be regarded as the basis of all
education.

To recapitulate in a few words. When we desire to fix anything in the
memory we can do so by repeating it to ourselves before we go to
sleep, accompanying it with the resolution to remember it in future.
We must not in the beginning set ourselves any but very easy tasks,
and the practice must be steadily continued.

It has been often said that a perfect memory is less of a blessing
than the power of oblivion. Thus THEMISTOCLES (who, according to CATO,
as cited by CICERO, knew the names and faces of every man in Athens)
having offered to teach some one the art of memory, received for
reply, "Rather teach me how to forget"--_esse facturum si se oblivisci
quae vellet, quam si meminisse docuisset_. And CLAUDIUS had such an
enviable power in the latter respect that immediately after he had put
to death his wife MESSALINA, he forgot all about it, asking, "_Cur
domina non veniret_?"--"Why the Missus didn't come?"--while on the
following day, after condemning several friends to death, he sent
invitations to them to come and dine with him. And again, there are
people who have, as it were, two memories, one good, the other bad, as
was the case with CALVISIUS SABRINUS, who could recall anything in
literature, but never remembered the names of his own servants, or
even his friends. But he got over the difficulty by naming his nine
attendants after the nine