Page images
PDF
EPUB

sublimity is to be found in the works of nature.

The other class are naturally of a lively and cheerful temperament. If they delight in nature, it is not in solitude, but in the company of others. While they seldom throw open their hearts for the admission of troubled thoughts, they oppose no obstacles to the entrance of the sweet beams of peace and joy and hope.

Now it is beyond question that the primary laws of association are influenced by the constitutional tendencies, manifest in these two classes of persons; that is to say, in the minds of two individuals, the one of a cheerful, the other of a melancholy or gloomy disposition, the trains of thought will be very different. This difference is finely illustrated in those beautiful poems of Milton, L'ALLEGRO and IL PENSEROSO. L'ALLEGRO or the cheerful man finds pleasure and cheerfulness in every object, which he beholds;-The great sun puts on his amber light, the mower whets his scythe, the milk-maid sings,

"And every shepherd tells his tale

"Under the hawthorn in the dale.

But the man of melancholy disposition, IL PENSEROSO, chooses the evening for his walk, as most suitable to the temper of his mind; he listens from some lonely hillock to the distant curfew, and loves to hear the song of that "sweet bird,

-That shun'st the noise of folly, "Most musical, most melancholy.

Further;-Our trains of suggested thoughts will be modified by those temporary feelings, which may be regarded, as exceptions to the more general character of our dispositions. The cheerful man is not always cheerful, nor is the melancholy man at all times equally sober and contemplative. They are known to exchange characters for short periods, sometimes in consequence of good or ill health, or of happy or adverse fortune, and sometimes for causes which cannot be easily explained. So that our mental states will be found to follow each other, with a succession, varying not only with the general character of

our temper and dispositions, but with the transitory emotions of the day or hour.

§. 114. The foregoing law as applicable to the intellect.

The law of original difference in the mental constitution is applicable, in the second place, to the intellect, properly and distinctively so called; in other words to the comparing, judging, and reasoning part of the soul. There is a difference in men in this respect, as well as in their feelings and dispositions, although it is perceptible in different degrees, and in some cases hardly perceptible at all. One person, for instance, has from childhood exhibited a remarkable command of the relations and combinations of numbers; another exhibits in like manner an uncommon perception of uses, adaptations, and powers, as they are brought together, and set to work in the mechanic arts; another has the power of generalizing in an uncommon degree, and having obtained possession of a principle in a particular case, which may appear to others perfectly and irretrievably insulated, he at once extends it to hundreds, and thousands of other cases.

It is perhaps unnecessary to delay here, for the purpose of confirming what has now been said, by a reference to the history of individuals. A slight acquaintance with literary history will show, that diversities of intellect, such as have been alluded to, have been frequent. Such diversities are undoubtedly to be considered as implied in all instances of genius. When we are told, that one man has a genius for mathematics, another for poetry, that the genius of one lays in politics, and of another in the mechanic arts, we naturally inquire, What genius is? Nor are we able to learn, that it is any thing more than the constitutional difference we have been considering, combined perhaps with a strong curiosity; in other words, it is essentially and chiefly a natural tendency and quickness in forming associations on the principles of resemblance, of contrast, and of cause and effect. The history of the human mind does not authorize us to expect of men, whose associations are originally and prevailingly

formed on the law of mere contiguity in time and place, which seems to be the case with a great portion of mankind, that they will add new beauties to literature or new truths to science. How often had the husbandman seen the apple fall to the ground without even asking for the cause? But when Newton saw the fall of an apple, he not only asked for the cause, but having conjectured it, at once applied it to every thing in like circumstances around him, to all the descending bodies on the earth's surface. Here was a mind, not merely great by toil, but constitutionally great and inventive. How much more so then, when he lifted up the principle of gravitation from the surface of the earth to the stars of heaven, and showed its universality, and proved, that the furthest and mightiest planet is governed in the same way as the smallest particle of dust beneath our feet!

All the laws of association may properly be given here in a condensed view. The PRIMARY or general laws are RESEMBLANCE, CONTRAST, CONTIGUITY in time and place, and CAUSE and EFFECT. Those circumstances, which are found particularly to modify and control the action of these, are termed SECONDARY laws, and are as follows, Lapse of time, Repetition or habit, Co-existent feeling, and Constitutional difference in mental character.

§. 115. Of associations suggested by present objects of

perception.

There remains another point of view, in which it seems proper, that the subject of association should be contemplated, before we leave it.-Associated thoughts and emotions, when made to pass through the mind by some sound, which the ear has caught, by some object, which has met the eye, or any present object of perception whatever, are peculiarly vivid and strong. Associations, which do not admit of any of our present perceptions as a part of the associated train, cannot but impress us, as being in some measure airy and unsubstantial, however distinct. We deeply feel, that they are part of the experiences of departed days and which, in departing from

us, have become almost, as if they had never been.

But

let them partake of onr present experience, and of what we now feel and know to exist, and they seem to gain new strength; the remembrances are not only distinct, but what was airy and unsubstantial fades away, and they have life, and power, and form.

How often in the wanderings of life, are we led by some apparently accidental train of thought to the recollection of the residence of our early years and of the incidents, which then occurred! The associations are interesting, but we find it difficult to make them permanent, and they are comparatively faint. But let there be connected with the train of thought the present sound of some musical instrument, which we then used to hear, and of our favorite tune, and it will be found, that the reality of the tune blends itself with the airy conceptions of the mind, and, while we kindle with an illusive rapture, the whole seems to be real. Some illustrations may tend to make these statements more clear, and to confirm them.

Is is related in one of the published Lectures of Dr. Rush, that an old native African was permitted by his master a number of years since, to go from home in order to see a lion, that was conducted as a show through the state of New Jersey. He no sooner saw him, than he was so transported with joy, as to express his emotions by jumping, dancing, and loud acclamations, notwithstanding the torpid habits of mind and body, superinduced by half a century of slavery. He had known that animal, when a boy in his native country, and the sight of him suddenly revived the memory of his early enjoyments, his native land, his home, his associates, and his freedom.

There is in the same writer another interesting instance of the power of association, in which he himself had a part, and which will be given in his own words."During the time I passed at a country-school, in Cecil County, in Maryland, I often went on a holiday, with my schoolmates, to see an eagle's nest, upon the summit of a

dead tree in the neighbourhood of the school, during the time of the incubation of that bird. The daughter of the farmer, in whose field this tree stood, and with whom I became acquainted, married, and settled in this city about forty years ago. In our occasional interviews, we now and then spoke of the innocent haunts and rural pleasures of our youth, and, among other things, of the eagle's nest in her father's field. A few years ago I was called to visit this woman, when she was in the lowest stage of a typhus fever. Upon entering her room, I caught her eye, and, with a cheerful tone of voice, said only,' The eagle's nest.' She seized my hand, without being able to speak, and discovered strong emotions of pleasure in her countenance, probably from a sudden association of all her early domestic connections and enjoyments with the words I had uttered. From that time she began to recover. She is now living, and seldom fails, when we meet, to salute me with the echo of the 'eagle's nest.'

[ocr errors]

§. 116. Causes of increased vividness in the foregoing

instances.

From such illustrations it would seem to be sufficiently clear, that, whenever associated thoughts and emotions are connected with any present perceptions, they are peculiarly strong and vivid. They steal into all the secret chambers of the soul, and seemingly by some magic power impart a deep intensity to its feelings, and give to the fleeting world of memory the stability of real existence. There are two causes, why such associated feelings should possess more than ordinary strength and vividness.

(1) The particular train of thought and feeling, which is excited in the mind, continues longer than in other cases, in consequence of the greater permanency and fixedness of the present objects of perception, which either suggested the train or make a part of it. So long as the lion was permitted to remain in the sight of the aged African, so long without interruption was the series of delightful thoughts kept up within him. The bright images, which threw him into such raptures, and awoke stu

« PreviousContinue »