Yet it is certain, that these admonitions of nature, however forcible, however importunate, are too often vain; and that many who mark with such accuracy the course of time, appear to have little sensibility of the decline of life.  Every man has something to do which he neglects; every man has faults to conquer which he delays to combat.

So little do we accustom ourselves to consider the effects of time, that things necessary and certain often surprise us like unexpected contingencies.  We leave the beauty in her bloom, and, after an absence of twenty years, wonder, at our return, to find her faded.  We meet those whom we left children, and can scarcely persuade ourselves to treat them as men.  The traveller visits in age those countries through which he rambled in his youth, and hopes for merriment at the old place.  The man of business, wearied with unsatisfactory prosperity, retires to the town of his nativity, and expects to play away the last years with the companions of his childhood, and recover youth in the fields, where he once was young.

From this inattention, so general and so mischievous, let it be every man’s study to exempt himself.  Let him that desires to see others happy make haste to give, while his gift can be enjoyed, and remember that every moment of delay takes away something from the value of his benefaction.  And let him, who purposes his own happiness, reflect, that while he forms his purpose the day rolls on, and the night cometh when no man can work.

No. 44.  SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 17, 1759.

Memory is, among the faculties of the human mind, that of which we make the most frequent use, or rather that of which the agency is incessant, or perpetual.  Memory is the primary and fundamental power, without which there could be no other intellectual operation.  Judgment and ratiocination suppose something already known, and draw their decisions only from experience.  Imagination selects ideas from the treasures of remembrance, and produces novelty only by varied combinations.  We do not even form conjectures of distant, or anticipations of future events, but by concluding what is possible from what is past.

The two offices of memory are collection and distribution; by one images are accumulated, and by the other produced for use.  Collection is always the employment of our first years; and distribution commonly that of our advanced age.

To collect and reposite the various forms of things, is far the most pleasing part of mental occupation.  We are naturally delighted with novelty, and there is a time when all that we see is new.  When first we enter into the world, whithersoever we turn our eyes, they meet knowledge with pleasure at her side; every diversity of nature pours ideas in upon the soul; neither search nor labour are necessary; we have nothing more to do than to open our eyes, and curiosity is gratified.