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FOTTRTH CLASS OP OBJECTS FOE THE SUBJECT. 175
cordingly say, that our memory stands under two contend
ing influences, that of the energy of the representative
faculty on the one hand, and that of the quantity of repre
sentations occupying that faculty on the other. The less
energy there is in the faculty, the fewer must be the repre
sentations, and conversely. This explains the impaired
memory of habitual novel-readers, for it is with them as
with men of genius : the multitude of representations fol
lowing rapidly upon each other, leaves no time or patience
for repetition and practice ; only, in novels, these repre
sentations are not the readers own, but other people s
thoughts and combinations quickly succeeding each other,
and the readers themselves are wanting in that which, in
genius, counterbalances repetition. The whole thing be
sides is subject to the corrective, that we all have most
memory for that which interests us, and least for that which
does not. Great minds therefore are apt to forget in an
incredibly short time the petty affairs and trifling occur
rences of daily life and the commonplace people with whom
they come in contact, whereas they have a wonderful recol
lection of those things which have importance in them
selves and for them.
It is, however, on the whole, easy to understand that
we should more readily remember such series of represen
tations as are connected together by the thread of one
or more of the above-mentioned species of reasons and
consequences, than such as have no connection with one
another, but only with our will according to the law of
motives ;
grouped.
that is to say, those which are arbitrarily
For, in the former, the fact that we know the
formal part a priori, saves us half the trouble ; and this
probably gave rise to Plato s doctrine, that all learning is
mere remembering.
As far as possible we ought to try and reduce all that we
wish to incorporate in our memory to a perceptible image,