Memory

Memory, ^* Understanding; a capacity to make contracts, a will, or to commit a crime, so far as intention is necessary.

2. Memory is sometimes employed to express the capacity of the understanding, and sometimes its power; when we speak of a retentive memory, we use it in the former sense; when of a ready memory, in the latter. Shelf. on Lun. Intr. 29, 30.

3. Memory, in another sense, is the reputation, good or bad, which a man leaves at his death. This memory, when good, is highly prized by the relations of the deceased, and it is therefore libelous to throw a shade over the memory of the dead, when the writing has a tendency to create a breach of the peace, by inciting the friends and relations of the deceased to avenge the insult offered to the family. 4 T. R. 126; 5 Co. R. 125; Hawk. b. 1, c. 73, s. 1.

^* From Bouvier's Law Dictionary, 1856 Edition. Please see Bouvier's Legal Abbreviations & Abbreviated References for help with obscure nomenclature & references.