The Mastery of Memorizing (Volume 1, Nos. 1-2)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1890. Excerpt: ... Quickness of Perception. JAMES P. DOWNS, PUBLISHER, HARRISBURG, PA., AND 243 BROADWAY, NEW YORK. Copyright, 1891, by CHAS. G. LELAND And JAS. P. DOWNS. All Rights Reserved. Electrotyped And Printed By J. Horace Mcfarland, Harrisburg, Pa. II. QUICKNESS OF PERCEPTION. INTRODUCTION. NEARLY forty years ago the writer published a short poem, "On Mount Meru," which is said to have afforded M. Violet Le Due the suggestion for his great work on the evolution of man as set forth in architecture. In this poem the Creator shows the completed world to the Enemy, who, admitting that all is perfect except man, describes him as the vilest, most vicious and uncomely of all creatures, and a blot upon the face of nature. The reply of the Creator is, that the day would come when that vile creature would conquer all things, even the Enemy himself. "For he alone in Creation's range Possesses the wondrous power of change. And when the centuries had passed away The Denier at the feet of the Maker lay, And declared that, Man, Thy creature, hath conquered me Forever--Vicisti Galliloe!" This idea was dimly foreshadowed in a legendary religious form in the Book of Job, in a literary and artistic manner in Goethe's Faust, and in a scientific way by Darwin and Wallace. What it means is, that, while other animals exist in a type from which they do not depart, man appears to be absolutely without limit as to his development, his apparent curse of discontent being in reality the blessing of progress. According to the belief which evolutionary philosophy was the first to disturb, man was supposed to have a given quantity of soul, including capacities and faculties, which might be cultivated but not materially changed; for example, a memory naturally good or bad, which to the end of his l...