It has been said that “all other abilities of the mind borrow from memory their beauty and perfection.” In a very real sense it is true that all other faculties of the soul are useless without memory. Of what profit is all our wisdom, our reading, our study if we are unable to preserve the knowledge we have acquired? Of what benefit to us are all the intellectual attainments of our lives if they are lost as soon as they are obtained? Memory makes rich the mind by preserving all the results of our study and learning. “Without memory the soul of man would be a poor, destitute, naked being, with an everlasting blank spread over it, except the fleeting ideas of the present moment.”—Watts. It may be safely said that memory is the basis of all knowledge, that without it neither science nor art is a possible thing. This being true, the more a man remembers the greater is the amount of his knowledge and the greater the foundation for further study and research. Cicero said: “Memory is the depository of all knowledge.” Memory is the treasurer of the mind. And when the stream Which overflowed the soul was passed away, A consciousness remained that it had left Deposited upon the silent shore Of memory, images and precious thoughts That shall not die, and cannot be destroyed. —Wordsworth.
