In this chapter, we will focus on people who have a strong memory ability since ancient times, and those who are fortunate enough to improve their memory ability through appropriate training. Perhaps only a few readers have similar abilities to the readers we will talk about next, but this narrative helps to reveal what we already know: the development of memory really has no boundaries. If this judgment is true, then, no matter how bad the innate memory is, it will inspire everyone to insist on systematic exercise every day to improve their memory.
Lord Macaulay has an amazing memory. When he was only three or four years old, he could remember what he had read page by page. At that time, his memory was like a camera, which could mechanically "shoot" the whole page. His maid said that when he talks to people, he can quote many words from books. One afternoon when he was a child, he called his father. He even used a few words from Scott's The Last Bard, but no one mentioned them to him. While those older children are still babbling, he has been quietly absorbing nutrition from the treasure house of human knowledge. At home, little Macaulay would go to his mother's bed-she was ill in bed at that time-sit down and recite one song after another until her mother was exhausted. After middle age, there was a meeting at the British National Museum. Lord Macaulay, from memory, listed all the senior debaters who participated in Cambridge University in the past 100 years on four standard papers, and assigned them dates and colleges. Their names are printed on the calendar of Cambridge University. Other similar behaviors also show that his memory is excellent. He once said that if the existing Paradise Lost and Pilgrim's Progress were destroyed, he could repair them with his memory.
Maria Becky was a librarian in Florence and a literary genius of his time. He is experienced and well informed. He can not only quote other people's words, but also remember page numbers and paragraphs clearly. In the end, he almost forgot the social morality and sanitary conditions, and almost died in the pile of books.
Buxton had an excellent memory and died on 1774. Although he is the headmaster, he can hardly write his own name. He once remembered how many beers he had drunk since he was 12 years old, and even remembered the names of the gentlemen who had given him wine. According to him, the total * * * is 5 1 16 pints, which is the so-called "mouth", because some drinkers can drink up a bottle of wine in one bite. Although he seldom studies mathematics, he doesn't use any tools or pen and paper except multiplication formula, but he can do multiplication of five or six figures by these methods, and the time spent is shorter than that of most arithmetic experts. The result of its calculation is stored in its brain, and it will repeat the calculation after one month if necessary. And he can stop the operation and continue the operation after a week, a month or even a few months without any mistakes.
Dr abernethy also has an amazing memory. One day, he invited several friends to celebrate his wife's birthday, and an idealistic poet friend made some hymns for his wife. The doctor listened carefully, and suddenly he explained, "Forget it, it's really a joke. You didn't write these poems. I have always kept it in mind. " The doctor recited the original poem word for word, and the people present were too surprised to speak. The fake poet was surprised, confused and angry. The doctor happily introduced his super memory, and everyone present came up with a complete original poem that he could recite.
A large number of records about people with excellent memories can be found in ancient and modern literature, some of which are simply unbelievable. Just like the example of President Goldsmith, we are surprised to find that a small brain can absorb so much knowledge. Cicero said this when he commented on The Memory of Theodore, Hetensius and Zenus. He still clearly remembers his first day in Rome as an ambassador. When he talked with senators and gentlemen, he was used to calling them by their first names, which was also his first day in Rome. After leaving the auction house, Hetensius can still walk all the way from the back to count the auction items.
Mr. Stanton, the wartime secretary of the American Civil War, has an extraordinary memory. 1In the first half of 868, Dickens toured all over the country. One evening, he had dinner with Charles Sumner, and Mr Stanton was also present. To Dickens' surprise, Stanton could repeat any chapter of all Dickens' works from memory. Mr Stanton explained that during the war, he got into the habit of reading Dickens before going to bed.
The following is an example of Dr. john lydon: "When he went to Calcutta, a case happened. The handling of this case mainly depends on the expression of the parliamentary bill, but the relevant jurisdiction bill has been lost. " John bin Laden had a chance to browse the bill before he left Britain, so he used his memory to check it again. About a year later, a copy of the bill was obtained from Britain, and it was found that the restored version in john lydon was almost identical to the copy.
Some people say that cyrus the great can blurt out the name of any soldier in his army. Because of his strong memory, the Roman emperor Osso succeeded in becoming emperor. As an ordinary officer or soldier's comrade-in-arms, he knows every soldier's name like the back of his hand and can address every soldier appropriately. It is a great honor for the soldiers to get the attention of the emperor. They thought that the emperor even remembered his name and would never treat himself badly again. So they strongly supported him and helped him beat his opponent.
As an outstanding member of the Roman Senate and philosopher, seneca said when talking about memory: "Age has done great harm to me, and it has deprived me of many things that I once owned. This blurs my vision, dulls my hearing and relaxes my nerves. The rest, let me talk about memory. Memory is the most vulnerable part of the soul. When people get old, their memory will be damaged first. Until now, I can still hear 2000 names. "
John, a real estate agent in Norfolk? After listening to the sermon or speech, Fuller can write the sermon and speech accurately immediately. A man named Robert Dillon can repeat six news items in the newspaper he read the night before the next morning. GeorgeWatson did better. Although he is more like a stupid little hillbilly in other ways, he can tell the date of every day after this year and what he did that day.
Richardson is a professor at Cambridge University. He is knowledgeable and has a good memory. On any occasion, he can quote books, chapters, poems and important sentences of ancient Greek writers. Once, he was about to go to Latin class. A boy wanted to play a trick on him, stole the Latin textbook Horace and gave him an English version. However, before Posen went to Eton College, he had learned Horace by heart, and this classmate's tricks did not cause Posen the slightest panic. When he began to lecture, he opened the English book and began to lecture without hesitation. He speaks very methodically and analyzes Latin in English. Realizing that something was wrong, his teaching assistants and boys asked Posen what version of Horace was in his hand. When I was studying, I used the French Prince's version. "That version is very special," Posen replied. You and I don't look alike. "I have read this book", of course, the truth has surfaced. Posen also said that he would be happy if he found other students in the same environment.
Mezovanti is famous for being familiar with more than 38 languages and about 30 dialects. Once, after 24 hours of study, he was able to use this language freely for free conversation, which he had never heard of before and was completely different from other known languages. Many years ago, there was an old beggar named blind Alec in Stirling. He memorized the Bible. It can freely say which article, chapter or volume the scripture comes from, or conversely, it can say every sentence correctly.
Wesley said in his diary that a young Irish missionary had a deep memory and knew the Greek New Testament like the back of his hand. As soon as he mentions any word in the Greek New Testament, he will immediately tell you that the word has appeared on other pages, and each sentence has a different meaning. Some people say that after Charles Dickens took to the street for the first time, he could tell you the name of each clerk and the business that each clerk ran in turn.
In Louisiana, many congressmen speak Creole but hardly speak English.
Creole speakers account for a considerable proportion in the state, while bills of the state legislature are published in English and French, and all speeches of the Senate are also published in these two languages. For several years, General Horatio Haw Davies of New Orleans was a member of the Senate staff. He was responsible for translating all the speeches: after listening to the speeches for an hour or two, he immediately translated them into another language accurately without making any comments. No one is qualified for this job, but this well-known job has been given such high expectations that few people dare to challenge it.
It is said that Themistocles, commander-in-chief of Athens, knows the names of more than 20,000 residents in Athens. The famous chess player Murphy can play several games at the same time, and each game has its own unique chess method. He doesn't need to keep an eye on any game. Some people say that Pascal, the great thinker, can surprise people with everything he knows and reads. Some people say that Hugo, Grotius, Leibniz and Owen, each of them knows Virgil's Aeneas by heart. Joseph Scaliger, a great critic, often said that he had a bad memory, but he complained about it. He spent 265,438+0 days studying the whole picture of Homer. Then I spent three months making a comprehensive study of other Greek poets in my favorite way. Two years later, he successfully found out the general scope of the authors in the classical period from memory.
1820 "Memory Superman" Kona Thomson lives in London. He has an amazing memory. He walked from the basement to the attic, paid attention to the names of the items, and then made a list of all the items by impression.
Sir BenjaminBrody quoted Suarez's famous example in his book Psychological Investigation. Some people say that Suarez can remember all Augustine's works. This kind of book includes folio of 1 1, which tells us that people's memory ability can at least be completely recorded and stored in the brain as a whole. Some people say that if someone misquotes Augustine's famous words, Suarez will immediately correct them and tell him what the original text is.
Woodward is the publisher of junior's works and the editor of the London Morning Post. Woodward took part in an argument with his brother, and the next morning he reported it accurately without any explanation. People call him memory superman.
Ben johnson said to himself, "I like to repeat the books I have read and some poems of my best friend to exercise my memory." When Avisona was only 10 years old, he could memorize the whole Koran by rote. On one occasion, justus Lipsius bet his whole life that he could tell the history of Tacitus completely and correctly.
The following quotation is from Dumas' The Count of Monte Cristo. Tontis talked with the learned and witty Faria elder. He said, "In my study in Rome, there are nearly 5,000 books. But after reading it many times, I found that by being familiar with 150, one can grasp the whole picture of human knowledge, or at least all the useful knowledge worth learning. I spent three years researching and studying this 150 book until I knew it by heart. Therefore, after I go to prison, I can remember the contents of the book with a little effort, just like the contents on the bookstall. I can repeat to you all the works of Thucydides, Xenophon, Plutarch, Levi, Tacitus, Strada, Jodani, Dante, Montaigne, Shakespeare, Spinoza, Machiavelli and Bossuet. Here I just made a list of the most important names I am interested in. "
This extraordinary memory is not necessarily related to talent. Ordinary people also have this memory ability, but because of physiological changes, it is called "enhancing memory" or "enhancing memory" by doctors. When people have a high fever, are crazy, are happy, are hypnotized and are hysterical, their memory will often be abnormal. This extraordinary memory often appears when people are dying. In just a few seconds, a person's life experiences will emerge in his consciousness at a very fast speed, and those things that have happened but have long been forgotten will appear in his mind. When I had a high fever, what I said as a child had long been forgotten, no longer used, and was activated and awakened again. A sober man was crossing a railway in the country when a high-speed train was coming at full speed, and he could only lie in the open space between the two tracks. Just as the train roared by, a sense of danger suddenly struck him and made him shine. That scene is really vivid. This scene appears in the same order as the doomsday miracle.
This extraordinary memory does not only happen to people with special talents or special conditions. No matter which class you belong to or which country you come from, everyone can get it through certain training. In India, indigenous people have excellent memory. As we all know, their pharmacists need to remember hundreds of cans and pile them on the ceiling without labels. However, when he needs some medicine, he can reach into the right bottle without hesitation. With children, ordinary laundry workers go door to door to collect dirty clothes. After the clothes are washed by the river, they are packaged separately and returned to their owners. There will be no mistakes.
In Brittany, France, farmers still remember and can verbally repeat the traditions of their national ancestors. Through the remnants of Celtic language and weird customs, the British show their loyalty to customary traditions and ancestral beliefs. In Britain, farmers have established a model that they can always hear related stories by carefully and faithfully repeating the legends and stories they have heard. When a foreigner tells a story that is out of the correct version, they always correct it immediately: "No, that's how the story begins" and then tell the normal version of the story.
/kloc-In the 3rd century, the Bible was banned and destroyed immediately after it was discovered. The priests memorized the whole Bible in their minds and repeated it at the party. Even female believers can recite paragraph by paragraph accurately. Renard people can neither read nor write, but they can recite the whole Book of Job.
Stuart, a famous Scottish philosopher, is a man with amazing memory. "On this issue, there is a superficial view that the most primitive difference between people lies in memory ability, which is a big difference. However, we have every reason to believe that it is normal that people tend to exaggerate these differences. Moreover, the essential differences in human intelligence are not enough to cause great differences in memory. The reason why people judge the difference of thinking in this way may be because people have different study habits and different observation abilities. Of course, there are also natural factors and accidental growth environment. "
A large amount of evidence shows that reciting and simply repeating the Bible is more than enough, while people's memory ability is limited.
Leland once said, "It is recorded that a sect requires believers to recite the Bible word for word." Dragomanov, a contemporary historian, has specially studied this Sect. He claimed that none of their followers could not recite the New Testament. A bishop publicly declared that no one in his own parish with 4,000 believers could recite the whole Bible without making mistakes.
In order to prove that ordinary people can also have a strong memory, we extracted an interesting article from the Voice of San Francisco:
There is a waiter named Marinha who works in an Italian restaurant in O 'Farrell Street. His memory is better than that of imaginary farmers or frustrated administrative officials. What's more, in addition to his amazing super memory, he is still a very rich man.
This short man with a strong memory had heard many stories about the waiter's amazing memory before I decided to verify it myself. What's wrong! A Bohemian friend said in surprise that when we talked about some deeds of Malinha, "Just as Chris Buckley, a demon with no eyes, can't forget any sound, Malinha seems to be unable to forget any face, even a fish." It can not only remember you after many years, but also remember what you ate at your last meal. Don't you believe it? Well, try it yourself and then verify it yourself!
Why do some students get high marks by studying casually, while others are always immersed in their studies every day? The core reason lies in whether they have mastered the correct learning methods and how to memorize 1 000 English words in1day. How can an article be memorized after only reading it once? How to recite the key points of a book in one day? As shown in the figure
The short waiter's memory was put to the most severe test. It was Christmas Eve on 189 1, and two hungry reporters came to the hotel where Malinha was. There were hundreds of people eating there at that time, and few people ordered the same dish.
Hey, short pen! "Malinha walked quickly to my friend and greeted him:" Is it normal to eat tonight or like last time? "
Schopenhauer insisted that I order for the sake of fairness in the exam, and I did. The food is very delicious. I can hardly remember that scene. I forgot there was such a person in the world. He is like a mennong in myths and legends, incarnating as a humble waiter.
1892, on Christmas Eve, we had our last meal in Malinha for a whole year. When we were thinking about where to eat, Short Panhill reminded me again.
"Have you eaten? No, we're going to Marinha. I bet a bottle of extra dry wine. Can this waiter remember what we ate? Is it there?