But
he was a complete fool. Out of the line of burials he had not one
idea, could not give an intelligible reply to a single question,
nor be trusted even to feed himself. While memory-development is
thus apparent in some otherwise defective intellects, it has
probably as often or oftener been observed to occur in connection
with full or great intelligence. Edmund Burke, Clarendon, John
Locke, Archbishop Tillotson, and Dr. Johnson were all
distinguished for having great strength of memory. Sir W.
Hamilton observed that Grotius, Pascal, Leibnitz, and Euler were
not less celebrated for their intelligence than for their memory.
Ben Jonson could repeat all that he had written and whole books
he had read. Themistocles could call by name the 20,000 citizens
of Athens. Cyrus is said to have known the name of every soldier
in his army. Hortensius, a great Roman orator, and Seneca had
also great memories. Niebuhr, the Danish historian, was
remarkable for his acuteness of memory. Sir James Mackintosh,
Dugald Stewart, and Dr. Gregory had similar reputations.
"Nor does great mental endowment entail physical enfeeblement;
for, with temperance, literary men have reached extreme old age,
as in the cases of Klopstock, Goethe, Chaucer, and the average
age attained by all the signers of the American Declaration of
Independence was sixty-four years, many of them being highly
gifted men intellectually.
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