feeling of the agreeable objects; and we have nature for our guide, which, in her most beautiful landscapes, often intermixes ugged rocks, dirty marshes, and barren stony heaths. The greatest masters of music have the same view in their compositions: the second part of an Italian song seldom conveys any sentiment; and, by its harsh ness, seems purposely contrived to give a greater relish for the inter esting parts of the composition. 261. A small garden comprehended under a single view, affords little opportunity for that embellishment. Dissimilar emotions require different tones of mind, and therefore in conjunction can never be pleasant (see chapter ii. part iv.): gayety and sweetness may be combined, or wildness and gloominess, but a composition of gayety and gloominess is distasteful. The rude uncultivated compartment of furze and broom in Richmond garden hath a good effect in the succession of objects; but a spot of that nature would be insufferable in the midst of a polished parterre or flower-pot. A garden, therefore, if not of great extent, admits not dissimilar emotions; and in ornamenting a small garden, the safest course is to confine it to a single expression. For the same reason a landscape ought also to be confined to a single expression; and accordingly it is a rule in painting that, if the subject be gay, every figure ought to contribute to that emotion. It follows from the foregoing train of reasoning that a garden near a great city ought to have an air of solitude. The solitariness again of a waste country ought to be contrasted in forming a garden; no temples, no obscure walks; but jets d'eau, cascades, objects active, gay, and splendid. Nay, such a garden should in some measure avoid imitating nature by taking on an extraordinary appearance of regularity and art, to show the busy hand of man, which, in a waste country, has a fine effect by contrast. 262. It may be gathered from what is said above (chapter ii. part iv.), that wit and ridicule make not an agreeable mixture with grandeur. Dissimilar emotions have a fine effect in a slow succession; but in a rapid succession, which approaches to coexistence, they will not be relished: in the midst of a labored and elevated description of a battle, Virgil introduces a ludicrous image, which is certainly out of its place. (Eneid, vii. 298.) It would, however, be too austere to banish altogether ludicrous images from an epic poem. In its more familiar tones a ludicrous scene many be introduced without impropriety. This is done by Virgil in a foot-race (Æn. lib. v.); the circumstances of which, not excepting the ludicrous part, are copied from Homer. (Iliad, Book xxiii. 1. 789.) After a fit of merriment we are, it is true, the 260. Ought similar or dissimilar emotions (raised by the fine arts) to succeed each other! -Succession by contrast sought by epic and dramatic writers; by composers of music by gardeners.-I alian songs. 261. Emotions proper to be excited in embellishing a large compared with a smalı gar den. A garden in a city; in a solitary region. less disposed to the serious and sublime; but then a ludicrous scene, by unbending the mind from severe application to more interesting subjects, may prevent fatigue and preserve our relish entire. CHAPTER IX. UNIFORMITY AND VARIETY. 263. THE necessary succession of perceptions may be examined in two different views; one with respect to order and connection, and one with respect to uniformity and variety. In the first view it is handled above (chapter i.), and I now proceed to the second. The world we inhabit is replete with things no less remarkable for their variety than for their number; these, unfolded by the wonderful mechanism of external sense, furnish the mind with many perceptions, which, joined with ideas of memory, of imagination, and of reflection, form a complete train that has not a gap or interval. This train of perceptions and ideas depends very little on will. The mind, as has been observed (Locke, Book ii. chap. 14), is so constituted "that it can by no effort break off the succession of its ideas, nor keep its attention long fixed upon the same object:" we can ar rest a perception in its course; we can shorten its natural duration to make room for another; we can vary the succession by change of place or of amusement; and we can in some measure prevent variety by frequently recalling the same object after short intervals but still there must be a succession and a change from one perception to another. By artificial means the succession may be retarded or accelerated, may be rendered more various or more uniform, but in one shape or another is unavoidable. 264. The train, even when left to its ordinary course, is not always uniform in its motion; there are natural causes that accelerate or retard it considerably. The first I shall mention is a peculiar constitution of mind. One man is distinguished from another by no circumstance more remarkably than his train of perceptions: to a cold languid temper belongs a slow course of perceptions, which oc casions a dullness of apprehension and sluggishness in action; to a warm temper, on the contrary, belongs a quick course of percep tious, which occasions quickness of apprehension and activity in business. The Asiatic nations, the Chinese especially, are observed 262. Wit and ridicule with respect to grandeur.--Remarks on Virgil. 263. How the necessary succession of perceptions may be examined.-How our train o perceptions and ideas is acquired. Whether it depends on the will; and how far.--&10 cession and change of ideas unavoidable. to be more cool and deliberate than the Europeans: may not the reason be that heat enervates by exhausting the spirits and that a certain degree of cold, as in the middle regions of Europe, bracing the fibres, rouseth the mind, and produceth a brisk circulation of thought, accompanied with vigor in action? In youth is observable a quicker succession of perceptions than in old age; and hence, in youth, a remarkable avidity for variety of amusements, which in riper years give place to more uniform and more sedate occupation. This qualifies men of middle age for business, where activity is required, but with a greater proportion of uniformity than variety. In old age, a slow and languid succession makes variety unnecessary; and for that reason the aged, in all their motions, are generally governed by an habitual uniformity. Whatever be the cause, we may venture to pronounce that heat, in the imagination and temper, is always connected with a brisk flow of perceptions. 265. The natural rate of succession depends also in some degree upon the particular perceptions that compose the train. An agreeable object, taking a strong hold of the mind, occasions a slower succession than when the objects are indifferent: grandeur and novelty fix the attention for a considerable time, excluding all other ideas and the mind thus occupied is sensible of no vacuity. Some emotions, by hurrying the mind from object to object, accelerate the succession. Where the train is composed of connected perceptions or ideas, the succession is quick; for it is ordered by nature that the mind goes easily and sweetly along connected objects. (See chapter i.) On the other hand, the succession must be slow where the train is composed of unconnected perceptions or ideas, which find not ready access to the mind; and that an unconnected object is. not admitted without a struggle, appears from the unsettled state of the inind for some mements after such an object is presented, wavering between it and the former train: during that short period one or other of the former objects will intrude, perhaps oftener than once, till the attention be fixed entirely upon the new object. The same observations are applicable to ideas suggested by language: the mind can bear a quick succession of related ideas; but an unrelated idea, for which the mind is not prepared, takes time to make an impression; and therefore a train composed of such ideas ought to proceed with a slow pace. Hence an epic poem, a play, or any story connected in all its parts, may be perused in a shorter time than a book of maxims or apothegms, of which a quick succession creates both confusion and fatigue. 266. Such latitude hath nature indulged in the rate of succession; what latitude it indulges with respect to uniformity, we proceed to 264. Natural causes that accelerate or retard the train. (1) A peculiar constitution of unind. (2) Effect of climate. (3) Period of life. 265. Natural rate of succession depends on the particular perceptions that compose the train On the degree of connection between the ideas Hence an epic poem, &c., Jan be read more rapidly than a book of maxims examine. The uniformity or variety of a train, so far as composed of perceptions, depends on the par icular objects that surround the percipient at the time. The present occupation must also have an influence, for one is sometimes engaged in a multiplicity of affairs, sometimes altogether vacant. A natural train of ideas of memory is more circumscribed, each object being, by some connection, linked to what precedes and to what follows it: these connections, which are many, and of different kinds, afford scope for a sufficient degree of variety, and at the same time prevent that degree which is unpleasant by excess. Temper and constitution also have an influence here, as well as upon the rate of succession: a man of a calm and sedate temper, admits not willingly any idea but what is regularly introduced by a proper connection; one of a roving disposition embraces with avidity every new idea, however slender its relation be to those that preceded it. Neither must we overlook the nature of the perceptions that compose the train; for their influence is no less with respect to uniformity and variety, than with respect to the rate of succession. The mind engrossed by any passion, love or hatred, hope or fear, broods over its object, and can bear no interruption; and in such a state, the train of perceptions must not only be slow, but extremely uniform. Anger newly inflamed eagerly grasps ite object, and leaves not a cranny in the mind for another thought but of revenge. In the character of Hotspur, that state of mind is represented to the life; a picture remarkable for likeness as well as for high coloring: Worcester. Peace, cousin, say no more. Hotspur. If he fall in, good night. Or sink or swim Send danger from the east into the west, So honor cross it from the north to south, And let them grapple. Oh! the blood more stirs Worcester. Those same noble Scots, That are your prisoners Hotspur. I'll keep them all; By heaven he shall not have a Scot of them: No; if a Scot would save his soul, he shall not; I'll keep them, by this hand. Worcester. You start away, And lend no ear unto my purpose: He said he would not ransom Mortimer: Forbade my tongue to speak of Mortimer: And in his ear I'll holla Mortimer! Nay, I will have a starling taught to speak 266. Uniformity or variety of a train of perceptions depends on what? Nothing but Mortimer, and give it him, Worcester. Hear you, cousin, a word. Hotspur. All studies here I solemnly defy, And would be glad he met with some mischance), Worcester. Farewell, my kinsman, I will talk to you King Henry IV. Act I. Sc. 4. 267. Having viewed a train of perceptions as directed by nature, and the variations it is susceptible of from different necessary causes, we proceed to examine how far it is subjected to will; for that this faculty hath some influence, is observed above. And first, the rate of succession may be retarded by insisting upon one object, and propelled by dismissing another before its time. But such voluntary mutations in the natural course of succession, have limits that cannot be extended by the most painful efforts: which will appear from considering, that the mind circumscribed in its capacity, cannot, at the same instant, admit many perceptions; and when replete, that it hath not place for new perceptions, till others are removed; consequently, that a voluntary change of perceptions cannot be instantaneous, as the time it requires sets bounds to the velocity of succession. On the other hand, the power we have to arrest a flying perception is equally limited; and the reason is, that the longer we detain any perception, the more difficulty we find in the operation; till, the difficulty becoming insurmountable, we are forced to quit our hold, and to permit the train to take its usual course. The power we have over this train, as to uniformity and variety, is in some cases very great, in others very little. A train composed of perceptions of external objects, depends entirely on the place we occupy, and admits not more nor less variety but by change of place. A train composed of ideas of memory is still less under our power, because we cannot at will call up any idea that is not connected with the train. (See chapter i.) But a train of ideas suggested by reading may be varied at will, provided we have books at hand. 268. The power that nature hath given us over our train of per ceptions, may be greatly strengthened by proper discipline, and by an early application to business: witness some mathematicians, who go far beyond common nature in slowness and uniformity; and still more, persons devoted to religious exercises, who pass whole days in contemplation, and impose upon themselves long and severe penances. With respect to celerity and variety, it is not easily conceived what length a habit of activity in affairs will carry some men. Let a stranger, or let any person to whom the sight is not familiar, attend the Chancellor of Great Britain through the labors but of one 267. How far the train of perceptions is subjected to will-Various trains, end the power we have over them |