FANTASTIC FREAKS OF MEMORY.

Otago Witness, Issue 2010, 1 September 1892, Page 39

FANTASTIC FREAKS OF MEMORY.

The marvels of mind are many, and chief among them is the odd way in which memory will sometimes intermit its functions and then perhaps resume them after a long interval. Where there is no trace of brain ailment there may be singular forgetfalness. Gioacchino Rossini, the musioal composer who mounted to the heights of fame at a single bound with his masterpiece of " Tancredi," was in early days a visitor in Madrid. A dignitary. of the church, who loved music entertained him. Kossini could not have been in better hands or more assiduously catered for. When the time came for leaving .the Spanish capital, the maestro pressed his host to say how he might requite Ms kindness. "Write me a service," was the answer. Rossini demurred at first to having anything to do with sacred music. His getter did not lie there. But he' still more- unwilling to refuse, and ultimately he composed the "£tabat Mater." ©ears passed j his Spanish friend died- acd amongst the churchman's effects Rossini's score was discovered. It was despatched to Paris and sold to a music publisher. He soon had the work out, and well advertised. But it's genuineness was denied. Rossini threatened an action, and was absolutely sure that he had never written such, a composition. The facts had completely passed from his mind. The publisher was equally certain that the MS. was in Rossini's writing. At last the angry composer .went, to look at the score and had to confess his error. He changed his tone and claimed and received author's rights. ffihen Sir Walter Scott's powerful romance "Tne Bride of Lammermoor" was issued from the press its author assured James Ballantine that he did not recollect one single incident or character or conversation which the book contained. His mind was a blank about it. He could not connect himself as the writer with any part of the story.

Humour often olings to example^ of odd forgetfulness, especially where they shade off into the phenomenon know as absence of mind. The Benchers of tbe Inner Temple had for a long period a snndial bearing the rough and monitory motto, " Begone about your business." This came into existence through a strange failure to recollect on the part of an irascible Bencher. It bad been

decided when the dial was put up to meet in committee and fix upon an appropriate inscription. A time was settled, and the workmen engaged were to send a messenger at that hour to receive word of the motto. But the business was forgotten. , When the messenger arrived he could find only one of the Benchers, and angry at the supposed unnecessary intrusion he snapped out, "Begone about your business." 'Innocently enough the envoy took this word to his master, and the singular motto was at once engraved. The dial was subsequently removed and found a resting place in the precincts of a house" near Disley in Cheshire.

Cases occur in which forgetfulness in charch entails inconvenience, if no worse oonsequence. An eminent preacher of today is also the son of a powerful and impassioned public speaker. But he has related that his father's memory frequently failed at an awkward juncture. On one occasion the hearers had been worked up with a grand flight of eloquence, and the speaker attempted to close the passage with the well-known text, " Meroy and truth are met together ; righteousness and peace have kissed each other." But, unfortunately, there was a hiatus and collapse that spoilt the whole effect of what had gone before. The proper words had quite escaped the orator's recollection, and he confusedly said, " Mercy and truth are met together ; and— and— and two similar sentiments have kissed each other."

- A lapse of memory which inflicted worry and vexation on a large number of people took place not long ago in connection with a wedding ceremony at Chislehurst. The officiating clergyman was an intimate friend of one of the contracting parties, and perhaps this ciroumstance caused him to lose his head. He left out. an important part of the marriage service -nothing less than the words, •• With this ling I thee wed," &c. No remark was made on the spot, but at the breakfast which followed the ceremony a member of the bridal party spck3 of the omission. The clergyman was greatly vexed at his forgetfulness. To insure complete legality, the bride and bridegroom repaired again to the ohuroh, and were this time wedded in full and accurate form. Some instances of forgetfulness seem grotesque. It is related of the first Lord Lyfctelton tbat he once fell into the river through the upsetting of a boat at Hagley. He is said to have sunk twice before he recollected that he could swim. Lessing, the German dramatist and critic, missed various sums of money, and came to the conclusion tbat he had a thief in his household. He resolved to entrap tbe dishonest domestic, and accordingly be left a handful of gold in an exposed place. But on the morrow he sorrowfully confessed that he was no nearer to a discovery. He had forgotten to count the cash before he deposited it. Want of due recollection has its perils. An officer in the Indian army had but a small stook of money and effects, and he made a will devising his property to two service comrades. In the oourse of time a large inheritance unexpectedly fell to his disposal. He forgot all the circumstances of his lighthearted will, and he never made another. When he died bis dearest relatives found that by a perfectly valid testament he bad alienated tbe whole of his estate. And the inconvenience of this propensity, due as it too often is to carelessness, may be seen by any visit to a Lost Property Bureau. What people leave behind in railway carriages and elsewhere seems generally to be precisely what, if asked, they would most prefer to retain and preserve. As an investigator has said :

" A hairdresser loaves behind him a bag containing all the materials of a modern coiffure and all the implements of his craft. A merohant forgets his cheque book, a traveller his portmanteau, an invalid his box of pills, an actress her diamonds."

And some forget too thoroughly ever to know where to seek their lost possessions.