ADVANTAGES OF A BAD MEMORY.

New Zealand Graphic, Volume VII, Issue 11, 14 March 1891, Page 9

ADVANTAGES OF A BAD MEMORY.

A BAD memory, says a satirical writer, is always a good thing to a bad poet. He finds his mind full of fine thoughts and fancies, which make him feel proud of himself. Not remembering that they are the tine thoughts and fancies of other poets, he naturally imagines that they are his own, and makes free use of them accordingly, and thereby acquires the fame of an original bard among the section of the public that is blessed with memories no better than his own. Then, too, the benefits of a bad memory to a man who is fond of reading can scarcely be over-estimated. It at once makes his small library as inexhaustible as that marvellous pitcher of water from which everyone might drink as much as he required, and still it always remained full to the brim. He may read a good novel or a good poem and enjoy its beauties to the utmost; but in a short time he has quite forgotten them, and can take up the same book and read it again with as much delight as if he had never read it before. This is a joy in which the man with the good memory cannot indulge. The exquisite pleasure one feels in reading some of our best books for the first time he can enjoy but once. If he takes up the book a second time he too clearly remembers the whole plot and how it will end ; it is stale and unprofitable to him ; it has lost its gloss of newness, and he marvels at the delight it gave him when he read it before. But to the man with a bad memory the book never becomes stale ; he can always read it again after a short interval and renew his former raptures over it. He is a happy man. For him the rose never loses its fragrance. He eats his cake and has it, in spite of the proverb, and will continue to eat and have it as long as he lives.