Nugae literariae: prose and verse

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WAEN we speak of nature, in generat language, We conVeytho notion of the universat System ; the heavens, with theirsXed, rotatory, and eccentric luminaries; the earth, with iis atmosphere, inhabitanis, Vegetable productions, and mineraltreasuros: in Ahori, ali the WorkS of the obviolis or the presumed creation. Nature, in the stricter desnition os a philosophicat terminology, is that set and series of qualities which have alWays appeared attached to, and have been alWays developedby, any known substance and being. Every animal is continuod in iis Liud; each inorganic structure is cast according to the fame la . An exactneSS in ali elementary proportions has been most clearly proved to subsist. The very stratification of our globe, Where We might suppose an Undigested confusion Wouldbe found , follows a perfeci scale of order. Genus and species remain What they Were; they eXhibit the fame phaenomena; their constitution is fixed and successive. When We say that ithas alWays been, We borroW the testimony of history to the fact,

Warranis these predictions Z That such states of things havehitherio recurred cata esta listi no perpetuity. They cannot benecessary, for theSe operations had a beginning ;-what had abeginning may, at least, haVe an end. The mind, conSequently, proceeds upon this belles that the great machine, so nicelybalanced and adjusted in iis paris, shali be equalty consistent

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and regular in iis movemenis. Such is the permanent uniformity which We observe; such is the simple, the intuitive, credenco whicli it obtains; and suci, is the practical use to whichthis credetice is subservient.

Thoso data will not be refused iis in the intellectual en-quiry. Alind is given to man. Though we cannot conceiveos a potnt in timo When mind, Causative and Essentiat, did notoxist, it is alii se impossibie to conceive that created mind could have alWays existed. It is only With the mind of men that we arenoW concerned. Μalter may unsold, to other intelligetices, attributes of Which we, who judge of it by particular Senses, haVeno perception. Μind may possess, in incorporeat conditioris, alife and might to us ulterly unimaginable; but We have onlywitnessed it coupled with iis grosser Danae orti, and by nomeans independent of iis control. It is not like matter, un-changeable in iis result, for it is a thing of range, volition, and progression. But then these are iis sigiis and laws; in other Woriis, iis nature. In iis primary susceptibilities, it is in ali ofone character. Ab uno, Disce omnes. ' The human intellectis incessantly impelled and assected by the fame causes; it isseen acting in the sume Ways and directions. It is remari sed by Johiason Our intercourse With intellectuat nature is necessary; our Speculation S UPOn mulier Rre

voluntary and at leisure.' And this is noW more generallyallowed than when he made this enlightened observation. Thesoul of man, long Suspected to Wait servilely upon What Wasmost inferior to it, and to follow obsequiousty in iis train-as the sun Was degraden to revolve round our planet and to beruled by iis attractions oW challenges iis prerogative, aSSeriSiis supremacy ; the central sun imparting a glory it could notborroW, and communicating an impulse it could not obey. Asori of Copernican revolution is achieved in the pre judices of

our mentat activities, it is not my present purpose to confrm. We cannot prove them, indeed, by mathematical reaSoningS. This science can have no application to them. It has nothing to

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do with things whicli exist by constitution, but With thingswhicli must have always been, and never could have been other-Wiso than they are. Mind is a contingent substance; a physicas truly as any form of matter,-a conditional existence. Itcannot, theresere, admit of this kind of proos, and most pre- posterous is it to cali sor it. It may seem, ' sayS Warburton, Perhaps, too much a paradox to say that long habit in this science incapacitates the mind sor reaSoning at large, and especialty in tho search of morat truth; and yet I bellovo that no-lliing is more certain. The object of geometry is demonstration; and iis subjeci admits of it, and is almost the only one Whiclidoth. In this science, Whateuer is not demonstration is nothing, or at least below the sublime enquirer's regard. Probability, through iis almost infinite degrees, Dom simple ignorance VP to solute certainty, is the terra incognita of the geometer. Andyet here it is that tho great business of the human mind is carrisedon, the search and discovery of ali the important trullis Whicli

Consciolisness and intuition form the basis of this depart-ment of knowledge. I exist. I thinh. N Othing can be more certi sed than the convictions Whicli every man possesses of these facis. These are our postulates, it is true; but they are also our aXioms. They are resolveable into What Dr. Campboli styles the common sense.' And surely, is theso bo notalloWed, our organs of Sensation, hi Story, mathematical truth, Can have no eXiStence to US. ConscioUSness gives me as fullassurance of What salis under iis cogniZance as demonstrativo certitudo itself. It is no seoble guide; it is our 6rsi and best. Tho region os mitid is iis pro vince. We thias Can PUrSUe olarresearch, Dot into iis neXus and essence, for the substrata os aliqualities are by the very shape of our being necessari ly concealsed Dom us; but into iis cap ilities, iis Workings, iis transitions, iis excitomenis. This Will require a habit os abstraction, a patience of investigation, Whicli ali may not sind easy to eXercise. We cannot contrive a glass-hive within Whicli the mentat oporations stiali bo mado visibio; nor the solar micrOScope, Under Whicli iis most dolicato anatomy shali become transparent. But

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a no intolerable inare of attention is necessary ; and Whateuer is

in this way devoted Will be munificently repaid. This, So far, may be considered only an internat process, the knowle e by the indit idual of himself. Hut wo havo to deat with the humanminii as pertaining to ali human beings individualed, a monad, in each. Vet, While appearing so widely and similarly, We may

eX ternat thing. It may be subjected to ordinary tests. Wemay bring to bear iapon it, emperiment, cla88 cation, and induction. For What is education but a course of eaeperimenuupon the minit 8 I am ahaid that this is so well known, that there a re Some Who, With a Wanton curiosity and an idie parade, Vary to exhibit them. And we almost unWittingly cla88 yminds. We lay them out in specimens and orders. We Speali of them as judicious, acute, εtrong, 8u8ceptibie, poetis, Gryumentative, Sentimental, Murative, chaste. Nor can it bedoubiod that induction may here bo as justly introduced. Ourthoughis, Delings, elements of character, motives of conduci,are So many phaenomena Which may be ascertained, established, compared, Systematised. The only theory that can live, is thoplainest presentation and the closest copy of mental facis. The inductive principie must not bo confined, then, to the limits of

as on a theatre, bring sortii our nature in iis undissembledreality. Our mind must be studied in iis relation to universat mind. Tho one is only the alphabet, the other is the volume; but froin the endless combinations of the orae is theothor filled. The mind has been represented as consisting, or RS POS-SeSSed, of Variolas poWers; With eyes like Argus, with arnis like Briareus. To descend froni these classical marveis, it has been

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survivor, as the Curiatii and Horatii contended on tho condition that tho sinat victor should decide tho right of Alba or

intellectuat operations is, that the mirid, uncompoUnded, homogeneous, is soland in certain states ; that theso may be confidently expected in certain circumstances and Dom particulareXCilementS, ansWering to a known relation of What we callcause and effeci. I am much inclined to think that our best Writers meant no more When they spolie of potvers. Reid and SteWart were not likely men to ascribe to tho intellect any idea of muscular energies anil organio instruments. It is, hoWever, the merit of Brown, that he adopted a more precise

phraseology, although Hume's hypothesis, substituting antece delice und sequence, the relation of time, for cause and effeci, the relation os insuence,-so intricately mixed up with it is not essentiat to it, and , in my apprehenSion, leniis to consoland it. A distinction has been frequently taken belWeen the intellectual and active faculties. To such distinction We cannot subscribe. The passions are set down by it as the inferior principies of our nature; a sori os loWer houso, draWing the bilis and Voting the supplies Whicli the Upper one can Only PaSS and expend; and but admissi ble, by a peculiar courtesy, into the Painted Chamber of the imagination, to conserence With their nobie and approVed good maSterS. Only let it bo understood that our present discussiondoes Dot embraee the animal appetites, but the passioris of thohuman mind. Those appetites are to be known by the uneasysensations Whicli precede their indulgence, by their inconstancy, by their being soon sated, by the intervat necessary to theirretiarn. Such are hunger and thirst, and Whatever We orave

in conjunction and sympathy With exclusi Vely sentient beings. Higher instincis might be subjoinod to these appetiteS; attachment to lise, destro of pleasuro, dolight in Delings and displaysos crescent PoWer, parental love, the gregarious principie, theambition os distinction, adhereiace to soli and locality, set L

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defetice. But these are not comprehended in the present plan ;though it is but just to admit iliat these higher instincts maybe so ennobled and resineti, that they shali sexpand and heighten into the purest chariti s and most distinguished virtues. Whon we Dei and cheristi a passion sor any thing, our minitis in a particular state; the fame is true When the passion is against any thing. We destre, or We deprecate, that objeci, because We judge it good or evit. It is an unmingled intellectual act. They are the most immediate and vivid of our judg-menis, but are they not judgments still8 Aro thoy not thechoice of What seems best to iis at the time 8 Ars they notvoluntary and independent 8 It may be answered, iliat theyas ct ias disserently hom other judgmenis; that these poWerfulsemotions are Widely remote Dona the collected, and, in opposition to this opinion, froin the dispassionate, exercise of the

1.) The disseretice arises hom a dissimilari ty in the excit-ing objecis. Beauty in fortia, in excellen ce, in sentiment, assecisus as the setilement of an abstraci truth cannot do. Α nobis action, a splendid prige, Will agitate the mind with a quieti ei oyment Whicli it cannot know in treating an indisserent anilphlegmatic question. We have only to remember the disagreement belWeen an aggravated insuli and a mathematical position, to account for the disti greement belween tho Delings stimulated, the indignation aroused, at the one, and the imperturbabie calm-ness with Which Wo assent to the other. A Stronger Or Weuker impreSSion, a Warmer or Staider opinion, is diae to reason Whicli

discriminatos tho diversity of things.

2 ) This inequality of judgment, proportioned as it is tothe varied properties Whicli it considers, has a special designand use. Our passioris are intended to be prompt, decisive, influentiat; -they are the main-springs os conduci. Our fixed principies, Speahing philosophicatly, Would be too ineri aridulastii ring. The bark needs the gale, and not alone the helm. But how deplorabio would it be is these incentives Were notof the reason, is the passions Were not judgmenis, is our actSWere Stimulated by principies unworthy of comparison With the

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masteriloni of thought anil reflection in Which we may gratefully

intensity and vigour to the constitution and original biasses ofour minit . . We are made to think after peculiar laws and methods. The evidelice of generat truth ali minds recolve in the Sume manner ; the evidelice is adapted to ali minds. The samerulo Whicli direcis iis to judge of sonae things as indisserent,

It is biit a matter, at best, os curious speculation Whether thequadrature of the circle cari be accomptished ; it is no very grave interest that most can talie in the faci, that the asymptote os tho hyperbola may eternalty approach the curve of the hyperbola, and yet can never meet it. But bring me into circumstances

genial current of my sout is sWollen and accelerated. Is it bethe enquiry, Why these are Stronger assections or states of themind 8 It is a susscient reply, that thus is it constituted. No one can talie a comprehensive view of the human intellect Without investigating iis passions. The Word passion is conventionalty used to denote anger, as assectioηι is employedio describe love. But this must not be their meanings in our nomenclature. There may be a passion Of complacency, and anassection of hatred. Nor must etymology be our guide. PasSion Would then signify sussering, passive susceptibility. We construe ii as the more vehement conception and judgment of thosoul. Cicero calis the passioris, perturbationeS. Reid, perhaps, does not so greatly excet in his discussionos the passions as in the other portions of his masterly treatise. He seems to think that the term rather expresses a quality of ardency in the other particular assections whicli ho has describsed, than any particular class of assections them solves. So sar he is right in mal ing passion an accident and adjunci; but then this accident anil adjunct he considers as inconsistent With properdoliberation.

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Κamos distinguishes betWeen emotion and passion. Emotion is an exciternent Without destre; passion, With it. Cogan

To tho intellection of the passioris, it may be objected that we osten speak of their blinding effeci. Eut it is the detorminativoness and strength of the judgment whicli refusos a nyreconsideration, Which SPUrn S any reversat. The successive

operations of the mind are debarred by the obstinacy and vio-Jonco of the sirst decision. When that decision once relenis, weali know what is the force of the recoli. This is very notablewhen the passions rusti to their opposite extremes. Is I love a person Whom I haled, it is an acknowledgment that I was too

hasty in judging, that I Was deceived. Ιf I hate a person Whom I lovod, I rejoice that I Understand his character at last. I have seen many divisions and distributions of the passions ; and some of theSe are Very ingeniolas and preposSe8Sing. The greatest importance does not attach to such syntheticarrangement. The order of facts is ali that is Worth a thought. Nature must engra Ve these tables; truth must codisy thsese statutes. It is given to man at moSt to trace, but never to infert, tho links of this mysterious chain. System is of litile value, save as it implies a clearer accuracy of idea, and conduces toa happier explicitiae88 of tangilage. Watis divaricates the passions into primitive and derivative. The primitive are of two kinds ; sirst, admiration, love, halred; second, the divers kinds of love and hatred, as esteem, &c. The derivative are destre, hope, &c. Hartiey, a Very close thinher, and perhaps a very litile appreciated author, Would decompose them into sive gratesulpaSSions, and into sive ungratefiat. Grateful and ungratesul here obviousty signify pleasant and UnpleaSant.

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The late Professor of Μorat Philosophy in Edilaburgh gave

time as their index, apportioning them aS they are retrospectiVe, immediate, and prospective. But this seems done to talty with his sevourito doctrine of sequence, and the principie is ostenianmanageable. Cheerfulness is an immediate emotion ; but it may simply originate in liope, Whicli is prospectivo. Gries is ani inmediate emotion, but may only Spring Dona remorse, Which

not directly regarii truth and knowledse. Μan has a naturalavidity and greed for these. Nothing is more indicative of him. As lis is indifferent to these acquisitioris, he recedes Dom his proper nature. The ancient table informs iis that Ulysses asked his contrades, after Circe had transformed them into disserent Soris of beasis, the poWer of speech being reta ined by them Whether they would retiarn to humanity. The hog grunted his refusal, and rolled over again in his stye. Ali declined but thoelephant, Who had, ere the metamorphosiS, been a philosopher.

bet weon a brutish and a rational lisse. There are, indeed, thoso who have studied with what seemed a passion. The spirit ofemulation, the quest os fame, the liope of re ard, the throb os self-valuation, have reatly formed and fostered that passiori. Itis not dented, also, that our best interesis are connected with truth and knowledge, and that our highest emotions may be set vibrating When we perceive that connection. Good and enil, in their multiform character, and in their

immediate or remote, certain or uncertain, Probabie or improbabie, insuence, are the exciting causes Which give birili to thogo fervours of the spirit, these gloWing States of the mind. Goodand ovit must bo both morally, materiaily, and Sen SUOUSty, Considered. Μy apprehension and judgment must disser as theso

complexioris of good and evit disser; but, being good and efii,

my apprehension and judgment of them cannot be neutral. Bythe necessity of the case I am excited as to the one and thoother. Helice, according to the theory I noW advocate, resulistho distinction Os a paSSion.

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The actuat number of these passions, or, in more rigidpropriety, the actuat number of those excited states in whichtho mind may be Dund, Will be very Variousty determined. Horace Walpole says of Jerome, in the Casile of Otranto,

division bewilders; the attempt at meagre simplication is asconfusing. The mariner Who Was only prepared for the laur

extreme pote though We reverse the magnetic rod.

Good may bo considered by us in iise , thera there is complacency; or evit may be thus considered, then there is hareed. Good may be regarded as an object to be possessed, and thenthere is appetency or destre. Evil may be thus regarded, and then there is aversion or dissust. Good may be contemplated asSomething great and majestic, and then there is admiration orawe. Evil may be thus observed, and then there is horror orindignation. Good may be meditated as ami te and pleasing, and then there is esteem. Evil may assume similar characterS, and then there is scorn or contempt. Good may be dissiculi ofattainment, it then inspires courasse. Evil may be formidabie, it then begeis fear. Good when realised aWahens Dy. Evil,

Sonat quality in Ourseives, rarely or unequalty exhibited by Others, flatters our pride. Evit, perceived as a personat quali ty