The Highland monthly - National Library of Scotland

194 '^^^^ Highland Monthly.
But, alas ! such is not the case. She annoys me so much
sometimes, that were it not for two reasons I would part
with her, and try to get a quieter person to keep the house.
The first reason is that my sister-in-law thinks much of
Eppie, and, indeed, I confess she does her work well, and
is strictly honest and faithful. The second cause is a queer
one— I think her sharp, critical, puckered phiz is a kind of
mentor to keep my memory awake. I do not understand
the rationale of my forgetfulness. In youth I was noted
for sharpness of memory ; now I am a laughing-stock to my
relations and to my servants, and feel anxious and nervous
when out among strangers, as well as in my little study,
lest I commit ludicrous blunders. Yet, in spite of all this,
I am confident that my powers of recollection are generally
as strong, nay stronger, than when I was twenty years of
age. My memory never was stronger, I repeat it, but it
has become more rebellious— it has mastered my will.
Perhaps if I had been immersed in middle life, in any
business requiring concentration of mind, my will would
have mastered my errancy. Length of days, experience of
life, and reading, multiply the photographs laid up in the
chambers of the memory. When the store is scanty the
presiding deity has no difficulty in getting the proper slide
under the stereoscope. The task is made more difficult by
the multiplication of stores. Memory must then proceed
by a system of classification based on contrasts, resem-
blances, and associations. When one's will is strong he can
make memory deny her nature and proceed on the principle
of arbitrary selection, that is of keeping at hand the slides
illustrative of a particular calling or business, and banish-
ing the rest to the lumber-garret. When the will is weak,
that is when purpose does not master the memory, it
works in its natural way, and will not put at once the
single slide under the stereoscope, without being followed
or preceded by the rest of the series—stretching, as it were
from the creation to the crack of doom.