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 ...

3,96 MEMORY.
them with any degree of confidence. What improvements in
science might we not flatter ourselves with the hopes of accomplishing, had we only activity and industry to treasure up every
plausible hint that occurs to us! Hardly a day passes, when
many such do not occur to ourselves, or are suggested by others;
and detached and insulated as they may appear at present, some
of them may, perhaps, afterwards, at the distance of years, furnish the key-stone of an important system.
A long train of reasoning or investigation cannot be prosecuted
except in writing. - But it is not only in this point of view, that
the philosopher derives advantage from the practice of writing.'Without its assistance, he could seldom be able to advance
beyond those simple elementary truths which are current in the
world, and which form, in the various branches of science, the
established creed of the age he lives in. How inconsiderable
would have been the progress of mathlematicians, in their more
abstruse speculations, without the aid of tlhe algebraical notation;
and to what sublime discoveries have they been led by this
beautiful contrivance, which, by relieving the MIemory of' the
effort necessary for recollecting the steps of a long investigat.ion, has enabled them to prosecute an infinite variety of inquiries, to which the unassisted powers.of the human mind would
have been altogether unequal! In the other sciences, it is true,
we have seldom or never occasion to follow out such long chains
of consequences as in mathematics; but in these sciences, if the
chain of investigation be shorter, it is far more difficult to make
the transition from one link to another; and it is only by dwelling long on our ideas, and rendering them perfectly familiar to
us, that such transitions can, in most instances, be made with
safety. In morals and politics, when we advance a step beyond
those elementary truths which are daily presented to us in books
or conversation, there is no method of rendering our conclusions
familiar to us, but by committing them to writing, and making
them frequently the subjects of our meditation. When we have
once done so, these conclusions become elementary truths with
respect to us; and we may advance from them with confidence
to others which are more remote, and which are far beyond the