Rashness, indeed, belongs to youth; prudence, to age.
VII. But memory is impaired by age. I have no doubt that it is, in persons who do not exercise their memory, and in those who are naturally slow-minded. But Themistocles knew by name all the citizens of Athens, and do you suppose that, at an advanced age, when he met Aristides he called him Lysimachus? I not only know the men who are now living; but I have a clear remembrance of their fathers and their grandfathers. Nor am I afraid to read sepulchral inscriptions, an occupation which is said to destroy the memory;[1] on the other hand, my recollection of the dead is thus made more vivid. Then, too, I never heard of an old man's forgetting where he had buried his money. Old men remember everything that they care about,[2]—the bonds they have given, what is due to them, what they owe. What shall we say of lawyers?
- ↑ Evidently the reference is here to a popular superstition, of which, however, I know of no other vestige.
- ↑ The converse of this proposition is, probably, the best statement of the causes of what is termed the failure of memory in old age. Lasting memory and prompt recollection are the result of attention, and attention springs from interest. Old men have a vivid recollection of early events, because their interest in them was vivid; while in advanced life strong impressions are more rarely made, most of its scenes and incidents being little else than the repetition, with slight change, of previous experiences. Yet the instances are not infrequent in which, after one has reached the condition in which yesterday's life is a blank, a novel and striking event remains unforgotten.
