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| Whether Memory is Also of Things Present.
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Chapter 11.—Whether Memory
is Also of Things Present.
14. But some one will say, That is
not memory by which the mind, which is ever present to itself, is
affirmed to remember itself; for memory is of things past, not of
things present. For there are some, and among them Cicero, who, in
treating of the virtues, have divided prudence into these
three—memory, understanding, forethought: to wit, assigning
memory to things past, understanding to things present, forethought
to things future; which last is certain only in the case of those
who are prescient of the future; and this is no gift of men, unless
it be granted from above, as to the prophets. And hence the book of
Wisdom, speaking of men, “The thoughts of mortals,” it says,
“are fearful, and our forethought uncertain.”880
| 880 Wisdom 9.14" id="iv.i.xvi.xi-p3.1" parsed="|Wis|9|14|0|0" osisRef="Bible:Wis.9.14">Wisd. ix. 14 | But memory of things past, and
understanding of things present, are certain: certain, I mean,
respecting things incorporeal, which are present; for things
corporeal are present to the sight of the corporeal eyes. But let
any one who denies that there is any memory of things present,
attend to the language used even in profane literature, where
exactness of words was more looked for than truth of things. “Nor
did Ulysses suffer such things, nor did the Ithacan forget himself
in so great a peril.”881
| 881 Æneid, iii. 628, 629. | For when Virgil said that Ulysses
did not forget himself, what else did he mean, except that he
remembered himself? And since he was present to himself, he could
not possibly remember himself, unless memory pertained to things
present. And, therefore, as that is called memory in things past
which makes it possible to recall and remember them; so in a thing
present, as the mind is to itself, that is not unreasonably to be
called memory, which makes the mind at hand to itself, so that it
can be understood by its own thought, and then both be joined
together by love of itself.E.C.F. INDEX & SEARCH
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