Pepys tells us of an Indian who could repeat a long passage
in Greek or Hebrew after it had been recited to him only
once, tho he was ignorant of either language. This man would
doubtless have been able to repeat, so far as his vocal
organs would permit him to imitate the sounds, the song of a
nightingale or a lark, through all its ever-varying passages,
during ten or twenty minutes, and with as much understanding
of its significance as of the meaning of the Greek and Latin
words he recited so glibly. We certainly need not envy
that particular “poor Indian” his “untutored mind,” tho as
certainly the power he possest would be of immense value to a
philosopher.--RICHARD A. PROCTOR, New York _Mail and
Express_.
(2012)
=Memory, Verbal=--See ROTE VERSUS REASON.