CHAP. IV. SECTION VI. PECULIARITIES OF REPRESENTATION. § 120. There are great differences between different people with reference to their power of recalling particular classes of facts. Some people have peculiar ability in remembering names; others in remembering faces; others in remembering dates. It may perhaps be assumed as a general principle that when any event or circumstance has excited a strong interest in an individual's mind, it will be easily and readily recalled afterwards. The power of memory may be very greatly cultivated by a suitable kind of training. Generally speaking, it may be laid down as a rule, that the cultivation of the habit of giving close attention to any subject of study, and obtaining a comprehensive and systematic knowledge of it, is the most important condition of being able afterwards to recall it. There are, however, many artificial systems of mnemonics which chiefly depend upon some principle of association. Particular names or particular dates are associated in pronunciation with some arbitrary sign which serves to recall that which is signified. Some system of this kind is frequently resorted to for the purpose of enabling students to pass examinations. An artificial system of mnemonics of this kind is just as useless as the system of examination which renders it necessary. § 121. There are many peculiarities which we Illustrations of peculiarities. CHAP. IV. Religious ideal founded analogy. of the various physical forces of nature; the second attributes to Him the moral control-that is, the rewarding and punishing of human actions; the third represents Him as having a direct and special interest in the welfare of all His creatures. § 119. Much might be said regarding the difficulty of uniting these various elements in one complex representation, and regarding the many very imperfect and distorted conceptions which have been formed. But we can at present only point out that the imagination can construct the idea of God only by analogy from things known. And as the qualities of our own human nature, either known to ourselves by consciousness or presented to us in the lives of others, are the most noble objects of our experience, they are naturally the types from which our conception of Deity is formed. The idea of God as our moral Ruler and our Father being constantly kept before the mind, there can be no doubt but the influence of this idea over conduct and life is greater than that of any other. When, by an individual, duty is performed and good is done "as ever in his great task-master's eye," there is the highest attainable guarantee that he is worthy of any trust which may be reposed in him. CHAP. IV. SECTION VI. PECULIARITIES OF REPRESENTATION. § 120. There are great differences between different people with reference to their power of recalling particular classes of facts. Some people have peculiar ability in remembering names; others in remembering faces; others in remembering dates. It may perhaps be assumed as a general principle that when any event or circumstance has excited a strong interest in an individual's mind, it will be easily and readily recalled afterwards. The power of memory may be very greatly cultivated by a suitable kind of training. Generally speaking, it may be laid down as a rule, that the cultivation of the habit of giving close attention to any subject of study, and obtaining a comprehensive and systematic knowledge of it, is the most important condition of being able afterwards to recall it. There are, however, many artificial systems of mnemonics which chiefly depend upon some principle of association. Particular names or particular dates are associated in pronunciation with some arbitrary sign which serves to recall that which is signified. Some system of this kind is frequently resorted to for the purpose of enabling students to pass examinations. An artificial system of mnemonics of this kind is just as useless as the system of examination which renders it necessary. § 121. There are many peculiarities which we Ilustrations of peculiarities. CHAP. IV. SECT. VI. Suggested tion. might mention in the series of representations which, in the minds of different persons, are suggested by representa particular objects. To different travellers going along a road or visiting places of interest, the objects presented to the eye will suggest to the mind widely different lines of reflection. The artist, on visiting the Falls of Niagara, will admire the grandeur, the sublimity of the scene; the practical uncultured American will think of the great loss of waterpower which might be utilised in driving numberless mills. The followers of particular professions bave peculiar lines of reflection naturally suggested to them by the objects of their knowledge. These peculiarities in the series of representation depend the circumstances of the individual-upon age, upon sex, country, education, social position, prevailing feature of character, and many other things which might be specified. That which gives to this subject its greatest importance is the practical effect exerted upon one's character and welfare by the spontaneous series of representations which pass through the mind. The mind is very injuriously affected by continually indulging in thoughts of sensuous pleasures, by cherishing feelings of anger or unworthy suspicions towards others, by thinking always of difficulties and hardships and thus taking a gloomy view of life. And it should be remembered that there is a certain voluntary power, which every one has to a certain degree, and ought to cultivate, of regulating and controlling the representations of his mind. By a voluntary effort one is able to banish from his mind evil and injurious reflections, and dwell upon those of a better and more ennobling kind. And the exercise of this voluntary power is perhaps the most important element in self-culture. There is scarcely any power which one can possess so valuable to him as that of self-control, and this not merely the control of external expression and action, but of the feelings and thoughts of the mind. § 122. In the constructive imagination, also, there are important differences to be noted between different individuals. And here, perhaps to a greater extent than in any other department of the human mind, we may observe inherited peculiarities. Poeta nascitur, non fit. The mechanical genius, the poet, the musician, the painter, the sculptor, and the architect-if they are not mere mechanics, but poets, makers, men of creative genius-are born. They bring with them into the world the capabilities of becoming what they afterwards become, and what they could never become were it not for the inborn genius which they have brought with them. Remarkable examples might be given of persons who, at a very early age, have exhibited powers in mathematics, in music, in poetry, in sculpture, which could not possibly have been acquired by education, and which must have been inherited. But from whom the inheritance has been derived, and how it is been transmitted, will probably always remain insoluble problems. CHAP. IV. SECT. VI. Peculiaristructive imagina ties in con tion. |