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. 273
general principles have an advantage over the philosopher, they
fall greatly below him in another point of view; inasmuclh as
all the information which they possess, must necessarily be
limited by their own proper experience; whereas the philosopher, who is accustomed to refer every thing to general principles, is not only enabled, by means of these, to arrange the facts
which experience has taught him, but by reasoning fiom his
principles synthetically, has it often in his power to determine
facts a priori, which he has no opportunity of ascertaining by
observation.
It follows further, from the foregoing principles, that the intellectual defects of the philosopher, are of a much more corrigible
nature, than those of the mere man of detail. If the former is
thrown by accident into a scene of business, more time will perhaps be necessary to qualify him for it, than would be requisite
for the generality of mankind; but time and experience will
infallibly, sooner or later, familiarize his mind completely with
his situation. A capacity for system and for philosophical
arrangement, unless it has been carefully cultivated in early life,
is an acquisition which can scarcely be made afterwards; and,
therefore, the defects which I already mentioned, as connected
with early and constant habits of business, adopted from imitation, and undirected by theory, may, when once these habits
are confirmed, be pronounced to be incurable.
How to retain knowledge permanently. - I am also inclined
to believe, both from a theoretical view of the subject, and from
my own observations, as far as they have reached, that if we
wish to fix the particulars of our knowledge very permanently
in the iMemory, the most effectual way of doing it, is to refer
them to general principles. Ideas which are connected together
merely by casual relations, present themselves with readiness
to the mind, so long as we are forced by the habits of our
situation to apply them daily to use; but when a change of circumstances lead us to vary the objects of our attention, we find
our old ideas gradually to escape fiom the recollection; and if
it should happen that they escape from it altogether, the only
method of recovering them, is by renewing those studies by