The association together in the mind of particular ideas, has also an important influence on our intellectual operations. This process may perhaps be not incorrectly described as a current of thought which irresistibly guides the efforts of the mind as regards the subjects on which it is engaged, and by which it is kept entirely to the line in which they run; analogous to the mode whereby electrical fluid is guided by, and kept within a wire or chain; and which affords, of itself a study for the mental philosopher. Through this operation, however, the mind is much attracted by material subjects, inasmuch as those are most frequently before us, and of which the senses are constantly and uninterruptedly supplying new ideas; and not only so, but by this means the thoughts of the soul are continually diverted from contemplations of a moral and immaterial kind, to objects which are gross and material.

The desires of ambition and avarice exert considerable sway over the mental operations. They not only induce many actions in every individual, but serve to give a particular turn to the exercise of the intellectual faculties, and direct the pursuits to which they should be applied. On the other hand, ambition and avarice often originate in the consciousness, that a person possesses of being endowed with those capacities, which will enable him to gratify them.

Fickleness in general conduct, which is allied to, although not identical with, instability, is ordinarily the result of the possession of strong emotions, and appetites, and passions, by any indivievening for literary composition, as ideas then flow more freely, probably owing to the brain being then, through a concurrence of circumstances, in a more active condition. Others, but I should think comparatively few, prefer the morning for literary labour, perhaps because mental calmness is more favourable in their case to such a work. Judging from my own personal experience, I should suppose that it is chiefly a matter of habit whether the morning or the evening be the most suitable. I have noticed, however, that it is easier to concentrate the mind on a special point requiring solution before it has become roused into full activity by application to the general business of the day than afterwards. This would seem to agree with your opinion as to a particular condition of body being more favourable than another for the reception, separation, or combination of ideas. You appear to refer, however, to purely bodily or physical conditions, whereas what I have said is as much mental as physical, and I should say depends, so far as the latter is concerned, rather on the blood and its circulation than aught else. We know that excitement, whether due to wine or other causes, is often especially favourable to the 'flow of ideas.' I have noticed that literary composition is more easy, 'pen in hand,' than by a pure mental effort without such an accessory-perhaps because in the former case the ideas as produced are discharged, as it were, through the agency of the pen; whereas in the other case they remain pent up in the brain, and hinder to a certain extent the effort acquired for the production of others."

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There are some of our natural desires which only remain in our most perfect state on earth as means of the higher powers acting."— Coleridge. Table Talk.

ATTRACTION AND GRAVITATION, MENTAL AND MATERIAL. 429

dual, which obtain over the mind alternate sway with the reason; sometimes the former of these endowments directing the conduct, and sometimes the latter, according as these medial influences are vehemently excited, or are lulled to repose. The reason ought however always to possess sufficient power to enable it to retain its authority under all circumstances; but it should nevertheless exercise its rule so as in no case wholly to disregard, though it should never allow itself to be misled by, the impulses and influences of the lower endowments in our constitution, which are not exerted without an object, and if properly controlled, are directly beneficial in their operation."

We are apt to be most fickle about those matters which concern our emotions, appetites, or passions, such as our likes or dislikes of certain persons or places, and the choice of our food. And we are perhaps least so in those subjects where the reason only is concerned.

6. Peculiar relation of the higher Capacities to the lower
Endowments.

ever

There appears to be a principle of attraction in mental as well as material subjects. Minds mutually suitable to one another, are naturally drawn together, and delight in intercommunion; while some minds seem instinctively to avoid coming in contact. cular endowments and powers in the constitution of man, In an analogous manner, partipossess an attraction towards each other, and are prone to act together, and to co-operate in the general conduct of the system. It is nevertheless a singular, and interesting phenomenon, which may be observed during the progress of the operations of the mind, whether through the exercise of its faculties, or the excitement of the various impulses to which it is liable, that very often those powers and endowments in our constitution which seem the most remote from one another, evince while engaged in such operations, the nearest relation, and reciprocally exercise very extensive influence. Thus, the most exalted of the

46

6 In reference to the above passage, Mr. Sopwith writes as follows:Exemption from the power of strong emotion, is essential to consistency of character; and those who feel strongly,' as it is called, do well when they defer action until time has been afforded for mature reflection. 'Fickleness' I take to be only another name for 'feebleness' of mind,a reed shaken by the wind. Instability, is more of a comparative nature, depending on the strength of impulses. The due control of reason over emotion can only be gained by taking time to reflect."

intellectual faculties and capacities, although, as already observed, the least dependent either for their existence, or their efforts, upon the material frame, will be found to bear close relation to certain of the lower medial endowments. For instance, genius, and especially the highest capacity in that faculty, origination, more particularly when exerted in imaginative efforts, of all the faculties and capacities has the most direct reference to, and is the nearest connected with the emotions of pain and fear, and the passions of terror and love; and is occasionally entirely dependent for the vigour of its operation, on the excitement of these medial endowments.' The efforts of taste also, have immediate relation to the senses, and to the emotions of pleasure and joy, through which external material objects excite certain feelings in the soul. On the other hand, the more ordinary capacities of the reason and the understanding, do not to the same extent appear to possess a corresponding relation to the lower endowments. Each capacity of the reason is indeed frequently perplexed in its operations by their excitement; although, as stated in the last section, the abstract determinations of this faculty alone, without reference to the other endowments and impulses in the system, are not always the most correct guides in the practical conduct of life. It is nevertheless through their influence, that the efforts of the understanding are mainly perverted; although this faculty, as also that of understanding, is at the same time principally dependent on the senses for the ideas which it receives, but not in any respect for its operations in regard to these ideas.

The efforts both of wit and origination, we find to be greatly stimulated and accelerated by alcoholic libations, and to be retarded by disorder of the digestive organs. The capacity of taste has an immediate relation to the choice made by the palate with regard to food. Taste moreover appears to have a peculiar connexion with the passion of love, as well as with the emotion of pleasure. Wit has a close affinity to the condition of the animal spirits, on the state of which mirth is greatly dependent.

Genius is aided and accelerated in its operations, by the excitement of the medial emotions, appetites, and passions. The understanding is aided by the senses only out of all the medial endowments. The reason is probably assisted by none of them, but is retarded more or less by each excitement which they Of the capacities of genius, origination, as regards its imaginative efforts, appears most, and indeed immediately allied

cause.

7 "Genius for the arts can never exist where the passions have not great power over the imagination, in affecting the train and association of perceptions. An imagination easily affected by the passions, is peculiar to genius for the arts, and it is essential to it in all the forms which it can assume."-Gerard on Genius, pt. iii. s. 2.

ANTAGONISTIC ACTION THROUGHOUT THE UNIVERSE.

431

to the passion of terror, taste to the emotion of pleasure, and wit to that of mirth. Origination, when employed only in scientific discovery, is not connected with or influenced by any of the medial endowments.

Not only however do certain of the mental capacities bear this close relation to, and evince extensive dependence upon, the medial endowments; but in a corresponding manner, certain of the medial endowments, more especially the emotions, and appetites, and passions, and the affections also, are aided in their excitement, while their operation is stimulated by, the mental powers. Hence, the whole machinery in the constitution of man, is united and compacted together; the remotest regions being connected by the closest communication, and the dependence of each portion on the other secured, whereby the harmonious operation of the entire system is effectually guaranteed. Hence also the different parts are fairly balanced one against the other, and each obtains its proper share of influence in the regulation of the whole. Throughout nature, moreover, this close relation of opposite qualities may be observed. Thus, body and spirit are intimately united in our own constitution. Good and evil are also ever conjoined together. Light and darkness succeed each other. And heat and cold are as directly related, as they are opposed, to one another.

This immediate and close connexion and inter-dependence between the higher capacities and the lower endowments of the soul, may also be somewhat analogous to the connexion and inter-dependence between the higher and lower functions of the body. Thus, the brain, which is the organ of the intellectual powers, is dependent for its clearness and readiness of operation on the state of the stomach and the digestive organs."

But, it may be asked, although the soul is in certain cases thus extensively influenced in its operations by the body; how is it that in the higher mental efforts, which appear to be independent of the body, the condition of the body also occasionally affects the operation of the soul, as in the case of idiots? It is not however even in this instance that their souls are actually restrained in their exertions by the defective structure or disordered condition of their material organs; but that they are restrained from manifesting them in consequence of that unhealthy state. The connexion between the soul and the body

Mr. Isaac Taylor observes "that the cause of the difference between one mind and another is corporeal, may reasonably be inferred from the fact that those varieties of power of which every one is conscious in himself, spring from the state of the brain; as when from circumstances unquestionably of a physical kind, such as the constitution of the general health, or the state of the atmosphere, or the influence of stimulants, or the condition of the stomach, the ability to grasp abstract truths is very greatly enlarged, or is as much contracted."-Physical Theory of Another Life, c. vii.

is in such a case rendered irregular and imperfect, by reason of which the efforts of the soul are not impressed on the material mental organs. But even in the minds of idiots, flashes of intelligence and even of genius occasionally sparkle, wild and incoherent as are these exhibitions; and which is exactly what might be calculated upon from the theory here enunciated.

7. Balance of Contending Influences, and Hurmonious Operation of the whole System.

When we consider the vast uumber of agents of various kinds which are ever at work throughout the universe, some aiding, some counteracting one another, attraction, gravitation, light, heat, cold, as also matter and spirit, fire and water, each ceaselessly in operation and exerting its influence; it fails to be a matter of wonder that in the universe of man, so many, and such opposing agents, should be allowed to prevail; or that, as in the course of nature, the final issue and ultimate result of the whole, should produce a system at once harmonious and beneficial, and contributing essentially to the well-being of every part.'

It is indeed interesting to observe how extensively throughout the entire economy not only of the mental, but of the moral and medial operations, various contending agencies are exerting themselves, the immediate result of which is mutually to counteract the effect of one another, in the working of the system. Instincts, and impulses, and cravings are, moreover, as common, as varied, as intense, and as constant in the soul, as they are in the body; and exercise as important an influence, both impelling and retarding, in the one as they do in the other."

9 Vide ante, Prel. Diss. s. viii. a. 4, vol. i. p. 160.

1 Why need we talk of a fiery hell? If the will, which is the law of our nature, were withdrawn from our memory, fancy, understanding, and reason, no other hell could equal, for a spiritual being, what we should then feel from the anarchy of our powers. It would be a conscious madness-a horrid thought."-Coleridge. Table Talk.

2 There is not a single perception, or thought, or emotion of man, and consequently not an object around him, that is capable of acting on his senses, which may not have influence on the whole future character of his mind, by modifying, for ever after, in some greater or less degree, those complex feelings of good and evil, by which his passions are excited and animated, and those complex opinions of another sort, which his understanding may readily form from partial views of the moment, or adopt as rashly from others, without examination."-Dr. Thomas Brown. Lectures on the Philosophy of the Mind, lecture xliv.

"The general harmony between the operations of the mind and reason, and the words which express them in almost all languages, is wonderful." -Coleridge. Table Talk.