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a few moments, or n few minutes ; in other cases n fow hours
or days ; in yet other cases a fern weeks or months : it is an
infinitesimally small part of all our mcnt.al impressions which
can be profitably remetnbered for years. BIcmorg u~ny bo too
retentive, and facility of forgetting and of driving out 0x10
train of ideas by a new train is almost as essential to a molltrained
intellect as facility of retention.
Take the case of a barrister in full practice, who deals with
several cases in a day. His business is to acquire as rapidly
as possible the facts of the case immediately before him. With
the powers of representation of a well-trained mind, 110 holds
these facts steadily before him, comparing them with each
other, discovering their relations, applying to them the principles
and rules of lam more deeply grnven on his memory, or
bringing them into connection with 5 fern of the more prominent
facts of previous cases which he happens to remember. For
the details of laws and prec,edents ho trust.s to his text-writers,
tho statute-book, and his law libmry. Even before the case is
-: finished, his mind has probably sifted out thc facts and rejected
tho unimportant ones by the lam of obliviscence. One C.WO
dona with, he takes up a wholly new series of facts, and so
from day to day, and from month t.o month, tho matter beforo
him is constantly changing. The samo remarks are even more
true of a busy and able ndministmtor like Mr. Cross. Tho
poiuts which coma before him aro infinite in variety. Tho facts
of each case arc rapidly brought to his notice by subordinates,
by correspondence, by debates in the House, by deputations
and interviews, or by newspaper reports. Applying welltrained
powers of judgment to the matter in hand, he makes &
rnpid decision and passes to the next piece of business. It
monld be fatal to Mr. Cross if he were to allow things to sink
deep into his mind and stay there. There would be no
Cdty in showing that in like manner, but in varying degrees,
the engineer, the physician, the merchant, even the tradesman
or the intelligent artisan, deal every day with variom combinetiom
Of facts which cannot all be stored up in tho cerebral
framework, and certainly need not be so.
The bearing of these considerations upon the subject of