Note 51 — Chapter X · OF THE NATURAL TERMINATION OF THE TWO LIVES.

If the old man preserves with difficulty the memory of the most recent events, whilst he often retraces with the greatest ease the recollection of the most distant ones, it is not because the first have been more faithfully transmitted to him by his senses, but because these events had produced a greater impression on him. This is so true, that failure of the memory is sometimes remarked in old people who have their senses in perfection. On the other hand, very imperfect sensations may produce a very lively impression. A connoisseur in painting, when his sight is very bad, experiences in seeing a beautiful picture, a hundred times more pleasure, than one who is indifferent to it, though he examines it with good eyes, and the connoisseur preserves the image of it long after the other has lost it. We do not perceive the recollection of things, unless there is some circumstance connected with them that makes a lively impression; but in the same event, this circumstance will not be the same in all individuals, and it is sometimes by the most trifling of all that a man fixes the fact in his memory.