Treatise of the Passions and Faculties of the Soul, Chapter 3
CHAP. III. Of the Memorie, and some few causes of the weakenesse thereof.
NOw for these inward Senses, which are commonly accounted three, (though extending themselves unto sundry operations of differing qualities) … take the two later, to wit, Memorie, and Fancie, or Imagination, to have a more excellent degree of perfection in man; as being indeed the principall Store-houses and Treasuries of the o… … ons of the Soule. Where▪ by Memorie, I under stand not the facultie, as it is common to beas…s with men, and importeth nothing but the simple retention, and conservation of some species, formerly treasur'd up by the conveyance of the outward sense: but as it is Consors & co-operatrix Rationis, …s Hugo speakes, a joynt-worker in theLib. de spirit. & anima. operations of Reason; which the Latines call Reminiscentia, or Recordatio; including some acts of the Vnderstanding▪ Which is a reviewing, or (as wee speake) a calling to minde of former objects, by discourse, or rationall searching for them; which is made by Aristotle to be the remote ground of all Arts: For (saith hee) Memorie is the Ground of Experience, and ExperienceMetaph. lib. 1. the Mother of Art: The dignitie hereof in man, is seene, both by perfecting the Vnderstanding▪ in matter of Learning and Discourse, (wherein some men have attained unto almost a miraculous felicitie; as Seneca the elder confesSen. Contr…. l…b. 1. …n …. seth of himselfe, who could immediately recite two thousand words, in the same order as they had beene spoken before to him; and Cyrus, of…. lib. 7. c. 24. whom Zenophon testifieth, that hee could salute all the Souldiers in his Armie by their Names▪ and Mithridates, who being King over twentieQuintil. lib. 1…. c. 2. two Countreyes▪ did speake so many Languages without an Interpreter; and Politian in his Epis…les telleth of Fabius Vrsinus, a Child but of aPol…. Ep. l. 12. ad …ic. Mi…d. eleven yeeres of age, in whom there was so rare a mixture of Invention and Memorie, that …ee could unto five or six severall persons, at the same time, dictate the matter and words of so many severall Epistles, some serious, some jocular, all of different arguments, returning after every short period, from the last to the first, and so in order; and in the conclusion, every Epistle should be so close▪ proper, and coherent within i… selfe, as if it alone had beene intended:) As also by affording speciall assistance for the direction and discreet managing of our actions, conforming them either unto Precepts and Rules in Moralitie, or unto Principles of Wisdome and publike Prudence▪ gathered from Historicall observations; while the Minde, by the helpe of Memorie, being as it were conversant with Ages past, and furnished with Examples for any service and imployment, doth by mature application, weighing particulars, comparing times, circumstances, and passages of affaires together, enable it selfe with the more hope and resolution, to passe successefully through any enterprise or difficultie: for qui credit sp…rat, hee that beleeveth, and is acquainted with the happie issue of other mens resolutions, will with the lesse anxietie or discouragement goe on in his owne.
The principall Corruptions which I conceive of the Memorie, are first, too much slightnesse and shallownesse of observation; when out of an impatiencie of staying long, or making any pro…ound enquirie into one object, and out of a gluttonous curiositie to seed on many, the greedinesse of the appetite weakeneth the digestion, (for so some have called the Memorie, the Belly of the Soule) and an eagernesse to take in, makes uncarefull to retaine. And this is the reason, why many men wander over all Arts and Sciences, without gaining reall improvement, or soliditie in any: They make not any solemne Iourney to a particular Coast, and Head of Learning, but view all as it were in Transitu; having no sooner begun to settle on one, but they are in haste to visit another. But such men as these (except endowed with an incredible and usuall felicitie of dispatch) are no more able to finde the use, or search the bottome of any Learning, than he who rides Poast, is to make a description and Map of his Iourneyes: who, though by much imployment, he may toyle and sweat more in travelling from place to place; yet is hee farre lesse able to discover the nature of the Countreyes, temperature of the Aire, Character of the people, Commodities of the Earth, than he, who though not so violent in the motion, is yet more constant in his abode: and though his haste be lesse eager, yet his observations are more serious. Omnis festinatio coeca est, saith Seneca; Precipitancie and unstablenesse, as well in the motions of the Wit as of the Body, dazeleth and disableth the eyes: And it is true in the Minde, as in the Stomack; too quick digestion doth alwayes more distemper than nourish, and breedeth nothing but Crudities in Learning. Nor can I call that so much Studie, as agitation and restlesnesse of the Minde; which is as impatient of true setled labour, as it is of quiet. Now, the reason why such a temper of Minde as this, is corruptive to the Memorie, is first, because Memorie is alwayes joyned with some measure of Love; and wee most of all remember that, which wee most respect: Omnia quae …urant meminerunt; There where the Treasure is, the Minde will be also: There therefore, where our Love is most constant, our Memories will be most faithfull. So, that sudden vanishing, and broken desires, which like the appetite of sick men, are for the time violent, but give presently over; as they argue an eager Love for the present, of what weeArill. Rhet. lib. 2. c. 12. pursue, and by consequence, … fastidium and disesteeme of that which wee soone forsake▪ so doe they necessarily inferre weakenesse on the Memorie, by how much they make our hopes the stronger. For, as Seneca speakes, Cad…ca memoria De Benef. lib. 3 c. 3.futura iminentium; Men strongly bent upon things future, have but weake memories of things past.
Secondly, the body of any one Homogeneall Learning, hath this excellent propertie in it, that all the parts of it doe by a mutuall service relate to, and communicate strength and lustre each to other: so that he who goes through with any Science, doth from every new Branch and Conclusion which he meets with, receive a greater clearenesse and more strong impression of his former degrees of Knowledge. Now then, that man who out of impatiencie of that Restraint, cannot endure to goe through an Art, to search into the Root, to observe the knittings and dependencies of the parts amongst themselves, to see by what passages Truth is derived from the Principles, to this or to other Branches; must needs be so much the more forgetfull of what he knowes, by how much he is ignorant of those other parts whereunto it referreth.
Other causes there are of weakenesse in theQui…til. lib. 11. c. 2. Memorie; as namely, a distrust, and from thence an unexercise of it. Whereupon Plato telleth us, that the use of Letters, in gathering Adversaria and Collections, is a hinderance to the Memorie; because those things which wee have deposited to our Desks, wee are the more secure and carelesse to retaine in our Minds. And on the other Extreme, a too great Confidence in it, and thereupon an over-burthening it with multitude of Notions; whereby as it sheds much over, so it is withall indisposed for the readie use of what it retaines; it falling out in a huddle and tumultuarie heape of thoughts, as in any other throng, that we can never so easily finde out, or order and dispose what we desire to use▪ but are consounded in our owne store. But I forbeare to insist on these, because I hasten to the higher and more noble part of Man.