like Lewis. She can boast, however, of one adipose phenomenon more stupendous than even he; we refer to Sir John Potter, who in 1858 succeeded Mr. Bright in the House of Commons as the representative of Manchester, and who weighed (on the hay-scale, we suppose,) 450 pounds! A London editor, in speaking of his face, said that it reminded him of Milton's description of Satan's shield, which, with the change of a single word, is an admirable picture of Sir John's phiz:

"The broad circumference

Stands on his shoulders like the moon, whose orb
Through optic glass the Tuscan artist views."

It is one of the preeminent glories of England that she knows how to utilize her sons who thus "tallow in the caul," as we see in this case and in that of one Edwards, who lived long ago in Oxford:

"When Edwards walks the streets, the paviors cry

'God bless you, sir!' and lay their fammers by."

It is said that one wonderful property of the Krenzbrunnen waters in Bohemia is their power to reduce the "too, too solid flesh," and hence resort to it hundreds who, afflicted with excessive bulkiness, would diminish their burden. "At one time," says a traveler, we counted seventeen fat men there sitting in an unbroken row, a sight to upset any unprepared nerves!" It is fortunate for such persons that corpulence is not treated by modern states as a crime, as it was by the ancient Spartans. The latter, according to a late writer,* took charge of the firmness and looseness of men's flesh, and actually regulated

*Bruce's Historic and Classic Portraits."

the degree of fatness to which it was lawful, in a free · state, for any citizen to plump out his body. Those who had the audacity to grow too fat or too soft for military exercise and the service of Sparta, were soundly whipped. In one particular instance, that of Nauclis, the son of Polytus, the offender was brought before the Ephori at a meeting of all the people of Sparta, at which his unlawful fatness was publicly exposed; and he was threatened with perpetual banishment if he did not bring his body within the regular Spartan compass, and give up his culpable mode of living,- which was declared to be more worthy of an Ionian than of a son of Lacedæmon.

MEMORY AND ITS MARVELS.

OF

F all the faculties of the human mind, so wonderful both separately and in their combination, there is none more mysterious in its operations than the memory. Physiologists tell us that every three or four years the particles of the human body are exchanged for new ones, so that materially every man becomes an entirely different person from what he was; yet, though his flesh, bones, muscles, nerves, and blood-vessels have passed away and been replaced by others, the man, by means of memory, preserves his identity in spite of these changes. No wonder that Cicero, after much meditation on this faculty, was led to regard it as one of the most cogent proofs of God's existence and of the immateriality of the soul. Necessary as this faculty is, however, to the preservation of all our past thoughts, feelings, and experiences, there is no other. mental power the value of which is so generally underrated. The vainest person will not hesitate to complain of his wretched memory, however reluctantly he may admit that he is slow-witted, or that his judgment is weak, or his taste defective. It has been suggested that one cause for this may be that a poor memory cannot be concealed. Men may differ in opinion as to what constitutes judgment, imagination, or taste, but everybody can detect at once a failure to recall a fact, a verse, or a date. Another cause is the absurd opinion so gen

erally entertained, that the more memory one has, the less is his invention.

A recent writer says that "if a man have a great memory, if his memory be prodigious in any sense,it will always be found to surpass his other powers." This statement is contradicted by a hundred biographies. Though a defective memory is not, as Quintilian declares, demonstrative proof of the lack of genius, yet nearly all the great men that have ever lived have had remarkable memories. So far from the intellectual powers being, as is so often asserted, in inverse proportion to the strength and tenacity of this faculty, the very reverse is usually true. No memory can be universal, but just in proportion to its strength and many-sidedness will be found. the vigor of the other faculties, and the force with which they can be brought to bear upon the affairs of life. Memory is the main fountain of thought; as Burke says, "there is no faculty of the mind which can bring its energies into effect unless the memory be stored with ideas for it to work upon." Hence it is that this faculty, by a wise provision of Providence, is developed in advance of the reasoning powers, so that when the latter begin to assert themselves, there may be material stored up for their use. What is an author without a good memory? We talk of "creative" minds; but this is only a figure of speech, for man can create nothing,- he can only select and combine. Genius, it is true, lights its own fire, but not till it has collected materials to feed the flame. When a man writes a book, however original, he draws the materials from his own recollections and experiences. Hence the ancients called Memory the mother of the Muses. Tantum ingenii, quantum memoriæ. What

is a statesman or a politician without a great memory? A political leader is continually called upon for feats of memory. Not only must he distinctly remember the leading events of his country's history and much of the history of other countries, political, religious, social, financial, but he must have an exact memory of names and dates, and a verbal memory to quote promptly and accurately. He must be able to recall all the leading points and facts of an opponent's speech, and at the same time to adhere to the preconcerted plan of his own reply; and all this must be done with clearness and distinctness, and without hesitation, boggling, or stammering. The weight of Sir Robert Peel as a speaker was owing not more to his argumentative ability than to the extraordinary fullness and accuracy with which he would state the arguments of his opponents in the order of their succession.

That memory, like muscular force, may occasionally exist, though rarely, without being accompanied by any corresponding superiority of the other faculties, is doubtless true. There are men whose memories, instead of being selective and retaining only what is nutritious and helpful, the things for which they have an intellectual affinity, and which are related to their own individuality (if they can be said to have any), retain important facts and trivialities,―things related and things unrelated to their own personality, with equal tenacity. They read a newspaper article, a poem, or a story, and it is at once daguerreotyped on the memory. They go upon a journey, and years afterward all its minutest incidents are faithfully treasured. Never ruminating upon what they read, they retain their knowledge undigested and unassimilated, and it affords no more nutriment to their minds than the flour to the bar