Memory, that faculty of the mind which enables us to recall past impressions, whether of external facts or internal consciousness. It applies to sensations, percep- tions, creations of the fancy, matters actpiired by learn- ing, in short, to anything, actual or imaginary, which has previously occupied the mind. It is the great mental storehouse of knowledge. The clearness of the impres- sion so recalled depends, other things being equal, upon the strength and vividness of the original impression, and this largely depends upon tlie tlcgree of atlmlion given to the object of it at the time. Other conditions are, chiefly, length of interval since the first impression, frequency of its reiteration, variety of intervening and confusing impressions, etc. There are two accessory ideas usuallv included in the definition of memory,
MEMPHIS
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MEMPHIS
namely, the power of retaining as well as recalling pre- vious impressions, and an accompanying consciousness that the impressions recalled relate to the past. But both these are logically involved in the definition above given ; for the power of retention is only indicated and measured by the facility or ability of recalling, and the past character of the thing remembered is implied in its being ?-e-called rather than conceived, perceived, or orig- inated. Memory is thus a definite act, which serves as the exponent or index of the faculty by virtue of which it is performed ; and the power itself is estimated and characterized according to the ease, rapidity and com- pleteness of the function. Memorj^ can hardly be said to be voluntary, yet the will may assist it indirecth'. The recurrence of the past impression depends upon •what is called the association of ideas, i. e. the connec- tion in which the impression was first made ; and this furnishes the link for retrieving it. This association differs greatly in different minds, and, indeed, with al- most every occasion. B\' attentively fixing the mind upon something connected with the matter sought to be recalled, the train of thought may often be recovered ; yet, when it does at last recur, it is spontaneous. Hence memory has been distinguished into simple i-emembrance, or passive memory without effort, and recollection, or active memory accompanied by a mental endeavor. Memory of a particular point may be clear or faint. Memory in general may be either weak or strong. In some individuals these last characteristics are constitu- tional. The memory, however, may be greatly im- proved by habit. Artificial helps are called mnemonics. Memory may also be weak in one respect, and strong in another. Hence the distinction of verbal memory, etc. Names and numbers are proverbially difficult to remem- ber. Yet some remarkable instances of these species of memory are on record. Singular instances also of dis- ordered memory, either excessively acute or defective in some peculiar respects, have been observed. It is held by many that nothing is absolutely lost by the memorj' ; and some are of the opinion that this facultj^ will furnish the conscience ^vith the whole catalogue of past sins at the final judgment. See Mind.
Mem'phis (Mfju^ic, Herod, ii, 99, 114, 136, 154; Polyb. V, 61 ; Diod. i, 50 sq.), a very ancient city, the capital of Lower Egypt, standing at the apex of the Delta, ruins of which are still found not far from its suc- cessor and modern representative, Cairo. In the fol- lowing account of it, we shall mainly follow the article of R. T. Poole, in the new edition of Kitto's Cyclopcedia, with. some additions from J. P. Thompson's article in Smith's Dictionary of the Bible, and other sources. See Egypt.
I. The Name. — Memphis occurs once in the A.V., in Hosea ix, 6, where the Hebrew has Hfoph (Cib, Sept. 'Mtn<l)iQ,\v,\g. ilemphis). Elsewhere the Hebrew name appears as Nojih (vl3), under which form it is mentioned by Isaiah (xix, 13), Jeremiah (ii, 16 ; xlvi, 14, 19), and Ezekiel (xxx, 13, 16). These two Hebrew forms are contractions of the ancient Egyptian men-nufr or men- NEFKU, whence the Coptic Mevfi, Memfi, Membe (Mem- phitic forms), and Memfe (Sahidic), the Greek name, and the Arabic Menf. The Hebrew forms were proba- bly in use among the Shemites in Lower Egypt, and perhaps among the Egyptians, in the vulgar dialect.
Tlie ancient Egj-ptian common name (as above) sig- nifies either "the good abode," or "the abode of the good one." Plutarch, whose Egyptian information in the treatise De Iside de Osii-ide is generally valuable, indicates that the latter or a similar explanation was current among the Egyptian priests. He tells us that some interpreted the name the " haven of good ones," others, "the sepulchre of Osiris" (kai Hjv fiti' ttvXiv o'l fiiv opjxov uyaSiCov ipfirjvivovatv, ol o [('o(]wc rc'iipov 'OfflpiSii;, c. 20). " To come to port" is, in hieroglyph- ics, MCNA or 5IAN, and in Coptic the long vowel is not only preserved but sometimes repeated. There is, how-
ever, no expressed vowel in the name of Memphis, which we take therefore to commence with the word jien, " abode," like the name of a town or village men-hcb, " the abode, or mansion, of assembly," cited by Brugsch (Geogi-aphische Inschriften, i, 191, No. 851, tab. xxxvii). " The good abode" is the more probable rendering, for there is no preposition, which, however, might possibly be omitted in an archaic form. The special determina- tive of a pyramid follows the name of IMemphis, be- cause it was the pyramid-city, pyramids having per- haps been already raised there as early as the reign of Venephes, the fourth king of the first dynasty (Mane- tho, ap. Cory, Anc. Frag. p. 96, 97 ; comp. Brugsch, Geogr. Inschr. i, 240).