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 ...

MIEMORY. 293
which they bear to one another, and to all the different particulars which were previously in the mind; fobr " new knowledge,"
as MIr. Maclaurin has well remarked, " does not consist so much
in our having access to a new object, as in comparing it with
others already known, observing its relations to them, or discerning what it has in common witll them, and wherein their
disparity consists; and, therefore, our knowledge is vastly
greater than the sum of what all its objects separately could
afford; and when a new object conmes within our reach, the
addition to our knowledge is the greater, the more we already
know; so that it increases, not as the new objects increase, but
in a much higher proportion."
The above passage may serve to illustrate an ingenious and
profound remark of Duclos, in his Considerations sur les lA1oturs.
"' if education was judiciously conducted, the mind would acquire
a great stock of truths with greater ease than it acquires a small
number of errors. Truths have among themselves a relation
and connection, certain points of contact, which are equally
fatvorable to the powers of apprehension and of 3iMemory; while,
on the o.tler hand, errors are commonly so many insulated propositiollns, of which, though it be difficult to shake off the authority, it is easy to prevelt the original acquisition."
5. In the last place, the natural powers of Memory are, in the
case of the philosopher, greatly aided by his peculiar habits of
classJifcation and arrangement. As this is by far the most important improvement of which 3Memory is susceptible, I shall
consider it more particularly than any of the others I have
mentioned.
Hlow lfemory is aided by the classification of ideas. - The
advantages which the Memory derives from a proper classification of our ideas, may be best conceived by attending to its
effects in enabling us to conduct with ease the common business
of life. In what inextricable confusion would the lawyer or the
merchant be immediately involved, if he were to deposit, in his
cabinet, promiscuously, the various written documents which
daily and hourly pass through his hands? Nor could this confusion be prevented by the natural powers of Memory, however
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