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Recollections of Foreign Travel, on Life, Literature, and Self-Knowledge
Recollections of Foreign Travel on Life Literature and SelfKnowledge Author:Egerton Brydges General Books publication date: 2009 Original publication date: 1825 Original Publisher: Printed for Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, Brown, and Green Notes: This is a black and white OCR reprint of the original. It has no illustrations and there may be typos or missing text. When you buy the General Books edition of this book you get free trial ... more »access to Million-Books.com where you can select from more than a million books for free. Excerpt: LETTER XXXI. 21st Aug. 1824. It is strange how wonderfully the view of objects is improved by distance. This is called the effect of memory, -- it cannot be memory; for it is the business of memory to reflect exactly, unless, indeed, it be a memory only of the prominent parts. But then the difficulty arises here, that such prominent parts as were disagreeable are faded away. Memory is the duration of an impression ; and I cannot see why the most strong parts of an impression should not remain longest, whether good or bad. I think, therefore, when we look back on objects with more pleasure than they gave us while present, the pleasure arises from some other faculty than memory. It seems to me to be a change, worked by the power of imagination. This might be ascertainedby watching the effects of memory in those who otherwise betray a deficiency of the imaginative power : if in such persons the recollection does not bring with it a sensation improved above that of the reality, the position will be confirmed, and vice versa. It is often a reproach to me that I recall with delight the images of things long afler they are past, which seemed when present to give me little enjoyment. If by this it is meant that I affect what I do not feel, I firmly and indignantly repel the insinuation. To be affected is in my habitual conviction a radical fault, which strikes at the root of all that is valuable in eloquence and poetry. It is my unqualified persuasion that to pretend a feeling one has not experienced, or to overstate it, always fai...« less