Elements of the philosophy of the human mind. By Dugald Stewart. Rev. and abridged, with critical and explanatory notes, for the use of colleges and schools. By Francis Bowen ...

MEMORY.. 255
intellectual improvement, and without which no advantage could
be derived from the most enlarged experience. This faculty
implies two things, - a capacity of retaining knowledge, and a
power of recalling it to our thoughts when we have occasion to
apply it to use. The word Memory is sometimes employed to
express the capacity, and sometimes the power. When we speak
of a retentive Memory, we use it in the former sense; when of
a ready Memory, in the latter.
The various particulars which compose our stock of knowledge are, from time to time, recalled to our thoughts in one of
two ways; sometimes they recur to us spontaneously, or at least,
without any interference on our part; in other cases, they are
recalled in consequence of an effort of our will. For the former
operation of the mind, we have no appropriated name in our
language distinct from Memory. The latter, too, is often called
by the same name, but is more properly distinguished by the
word recollection.
There are, I believe, some other acceptations besides these, in
which the word Memory has been occasionally employed; but
as its ambiguities are not of such a nature as to mislead us in
our present inquiries, I shall not dwell any longer on the illustration of distinctions, which, to the greater part of readers,
might appear uninteresting and minute.* One distinction only
relative to this subject occurs to me as deserving particular
attention.
Memory involves an idea of the past. - The operations of
* In the French tongue, there are several words connected with this
operation of the mind, marking nice shades of meaning, which cannot be
expressed in our language without circumlocution. Such (according to
Girard) are the words lIIlnoire and Souvenir, the former referring to the
understanding alone, the latter, to things which also touch or affect the
heart. This distinction was plainly in the view of I)iderot, in a passage
which it is scarcely possible to translate into English without impairing
somewhat of the beauty of the original. " Rapportez tout au dernier moment; a ce moment oh la mdmoire des faits les plus eclatants ne vaudra
pas le souvenir d'un verre d'eau presente par humanited celui qui avoit
soif."