Beattie, James (1735-1803)

Of Memory and Imagination [from Dissertations Moral and Critical]

London

Printed for W. Strahan; and T. Cadell ... and W. Creech

1783

"Traders often revise their books; to see whether every thing be neat, and accurate, and in its proper place. Students, in like manner, should often revise their knowledge, or at least the more useful branches of it; renew those impressions on the Memory, which had begun to decay through length of time"

A methodical course of study, a love of order, and a habit of distributing our knowledge into classes, and referring every new acquisition to its proper head, will also be of use in promoting a ready Recollection. A merchant, who keeps regular books, can instanly turn to the record of any transaction, if he know the date of the subject of it, or the name of the person concerned in it: but they, who put everything in writing as it occurs, without any subsequent arrangement; or, in other words, who keep only any article, andmay employ an hour to no purpose in searching for that, which the other would have found in a moment. In Recollection, the case is nearly the same, with those who are accustomed to arrange their studies according to a plan, as contrasted with others, whose thoughts and whose affairs are all in confusion.--Traders often revise their books; to see whether every thing be neat, and accurate, and in its proper place. Students, in like manner, should often revise their knowledge, or at least the more useful branches of it; renew those impressions on the Memory, which had begun to decay through length of time; and be particularly careful to retain the plan, or general arrangement, of every part of erudition.
(III, p. 44)

Writing::Account Book Impressions

Reading

At least 2 entries in ESTC (1783).

Beattie, James. Dissertations Moral and Critical (London: Printed for Strahan, Cadell, and Creech, 1783). Facsimile-Reprint: Friedrich Frommann Verlag, Stuttgart-Bad Cannstatt, 1970. <Link to Google Books>

Possessive Individualism

07/25/2005