fore they can recollect the relative place of any given
letter; others repeat a column of the multiplication table before they
can recollect the given sum of the number they want. There is a common
rigmarole for telling the number of days in each month in the year;
those who have learnt it by heart, usually repeat the whole of it
before they can recollect the place of the month which they want; and
sometimes in running over the lines, people miss the very month which
they are thinking of, or repeat its name without perceiving that they
have named it. In the same manner, those who have learned historical
or chronological facts in a technical mode, must go through the whole
train of their rigmarole associations before they can hit upon the
idea which they want. Lord Bolingbroke mentions an acquaintance of
his, who had an amazing collection of facts in his memory, but
unfortunately he could never produce one of them in the proper moment;
he was always obliged to go back to to some fixed landing place, from
which he was accustomed to take his flight. Lord Bolingbroke used to
be afraid of asking him a question, because when once he began, he
went off like a larum, and could not be stopped; he poured out a
profusion of things which had nothing to do with the point in
question; and it was ten to one but he omitted the only circumstance
that would have been really serviceable. Many people who have
tenacious memories, and who have been ill educated, find themselves in
a similar condition, with much knowledge baled up, an incumbrance to
themselves and to their friends. The great difference which appears in
men of the same profession, and in the same circumstances, depends
upon the application of their knowledge more than upon the quantity of
their learning.

With respect to a knowledge of history and chronologic learning, every
body is now nearly upon a level; this species of information cannot be
a great distinction to any one; a display of such common knowledge, is
considered by literary people, and by men of genius especially, as
ridiculous and offensive. One motive, therefore, for loading the minds
of children with historic dates and facts, is likely, even from its
having universally operated, to cease to operate in future. Without
making it a laborious task to young people, it is easy to give them
such a knowledge of history, as will preserve them from the shame of
ignorance, and put them upon a footing with men of good sens