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174 THE FOURFOLD BOOT. [CHAP. VII.
not be if we retained ready-made representations. It is
just for this reason too, that acquired knowledge, if left
unexercised, gradually fades from our memory, precisely
because it was the result of practice coming from habit
and knack thus most ;
scholars, for instance, forget their
Greek, and most artists their Italian on their return from
Italy. This is also why we find so much difficulty in re-
calling to mind a name or a line of poetry formerly familiar
to us, when we have ceased to think of it for several years ;
whereas when once we succeed in remembering it, we have
it again at our disposal for some time, because the practice
has been renewed. Everyone therefore who knows several
languages, will do well to make a point of reading occa
sionally in each, that he may ensure to himself their
possession.
This likewise explains why the surroundings and events
of our childhood impress themselves so deeply on our
it is because, in childhood we have but few, and
memory ;
those chiefly intuitive, : representations so that we are in
duced to repeat them constantly for the sake of occupation.
People who have little capability for original thought do
this all their lives (and moreover not only with intuitive
representations, but with conceptions and words also) ;
sometimes therefore they have remarkably good memories,
when obtuseness and sluggishness of intellect do not act as
impediments. Men of genius, on the contrary, are not
always endowed with the best of memories, as, for instance,
Eousseau has told us of himself. Perhaps this may be
accounted for by their great abundance of new thoughts
and combinations, which leaves them no time for frequent
repetition. Still, on the whole, gemus is seldom found
with a very bad memory ; because here a greater energy
and mobility of the whole thinking faculty makes up for
the want of constant practice. Nor must we forget that
Mnemosyne was the mother of the Muses. We may ac-