Virginia farmer the hides of March are alin sunshine and violets to await the coming matter of much greater concern. But these of the coquettish young April, who is soon disastrous seasons are not of frequent occur-to be upon the carpet. But ten to one, berence, and as later spring has its nipping fore her arrival, he is off and making fierce frosts, and summer and autumn their destruc- love to February again. tive storms, we must e'en let March off lightly, nor be too severe upon him for his unwelcome snows. If this be a sin, all I can say is, every sinner sooner or later receives his punishment, and such being the case, I dare say he will finally marry one of them. Then again he is such a boisterous fellow, blowing as if he had rolled the big stone After all, March is rather to be loved as a away from the mouth of the cave of old harbinger of the good time coming" than Eolus, and let all the imprisoned winds loose on account of any peculiar merits of his on a spree. But all this blowing is quite es- own. Ensconce yourself on the side of some sential in the economy of nature, and March pleasant meadow, where the warm sunshine should not be blamed because he performs a can have free access, and the thick woods disagreeable office. During the year there effectually ward off the winds, and you will have been tradings and borrowings going on begin to realize the agreeable truth that "the between the equatorial and polar regions, and winter is over and gone and the time of the of course pay day must come round at last, singing of birds is come." and the debtor party has necessarily "to raise the wind." March is wisely selected ing of the mocking-bird, and the thousand as the time for that purpose, for if those other feathered songsters that are soon to winds occurred in winter, they would freeze make the groves and fields vocal with melous all up: later in spring they would blast dy;-while "peeping from 'neath its mossy the young vegetation; and in summer and stone," that most poetical of flowers, the autumn they would prostrate the growing and violet, The notes of the blackbird tell of the com That comes before the swallow dates, and takes ripened crops of the husbandman. Let not the other months then look with contempt upon March and his boisterous winds, for in so doing they will imitate the folly of which gives earnest of the approach of that world the various members of the body were once of vegetable beauty in which they are soon guilty in rebelling against that other worthy to be clothed;-the season so beautifully and member, the seat of digestion. poetically described in the words of "glori And buds that yet the blast of Eurus fear, "When first the tender blades of grass appear, But your roaring March wind has other ous John :" redeeming qualities,-for though it rattles the windows, bangs the doors, and prostrates the fences, yet it clears away the clouds and cobwebs from the heavens, and how deep, how pure the blue of the unfathomable ether it discloses! Then is the time for astronomers to point their glasses in search of those yet unobserved planets which besprinkle inThen, from their breathing souls, the sweets repair, finite space, like "motes that people the sun-To scent the skies and purge the unwholesome air, beam." Then is the time for the keen eyes of mortals to survey the beauties of heaven, for it is the best opportunity many of them will ever enjoy. March is accused too of a want of steadiness in his attentions to the fair sex. First, Then, at their call, emboldened, out they come, Joy spreads the heart, and with a general song, Spring issues out, and leads the jolly months along." Dinwiddie, March, 1855. As the storm which bruises the flower nourishes the he dons his mantle of snow, and makes up tree, so absence, which starves a weak affection, strengthvery lovingly to that chilly, blue-nosed old maid February. Anon, he wreathes himself VOL: XXI;-29 ens a strong one. THE IMAGINATION; cheers and animates all our labors. It adds a zest to every enjoyment, and blunts the ITS SEAT, ITS DISPOSITION, ITS PLEASURES, ITS PAIN, edge of every suffering. Many an hour it ITS POWER. The un beguiles by the new situations and bright Man is a complex being, composed of two pictures it paints; and many a pang of the parts-mind and matter. The mind is cha- heart it alleviates, by diverting our attention racterized by a union of three, and the mat- from ourselves and fixing it upon the greater ter of four, peculiar properties. The Intel-woes of others, lulling us into sweet forgetlect, the Sensibilities and the Will are qual-fulness of our own. The poor man leans ities of mind. Extension, Divisibility, Im- upon his hoe-helve and casts his eyes forpenetrability and Color, are qualities of mat- ward ten years, and beholds himself, resting ter. The Imagination, which constitutes a from his toils and enjoying all the appurte broad line of distinction between man and nances and appliances of wealth. the lower animals, is an attribute of the In- married, though they may have been old tellect. These, as far as we are able to maids and old bachelors for a score of years, judge, are continually occupied with the have never imagined themselves divested of objects of present perception; but he can a single charm, and they have as high hopes withdraw his attention from the objects of as when they were in their eighteenth year. sense and enjoy those intellectual banquets The unfortunate receives consolation from which it is the prerogative of the Imagina- the thought that it could have been worse. tion to prepare and spread. The miserable places himself in the situation As the Latin word imago, from which its of one more miserable, and this latter one name is derived, implies, this is the faculty finds another who has suffered still more by which the image of objects is formed up- than he: for it matters not how low we deon the mind, and there viewed, as it were, scend the ladder of human suffering, our with an inward eye. Shakspeare calls it Imagination never lets us reach the bottom "the mind's eye." It bodies forth the forms round. The sick, though parched with feof things unknown and unreal, and creates ver and racked by pain, looks forward to new thoughts and new combinations of ideas the day when he will be himself again. from the hoarded stores of faithful memory. Childhood thinks of boyhood, boyhood of It is free to transcend the limitable world manhood, manhood of old age, each with a and humor the mere conceptions of the cheery heart; and even old age, hoary with mind, regardless of their correspondence to cares and pains, contemplates the panorama reality. Its appropriate and congenial at- of his future life with a complacent smile. mosphere is found in the regions of the con- "No one ever was so old that he did not jectural and conceivable. imagine he would live a day longer." The Doubtless the chief office of the Imagina- boy anticipates with delight the time when tion is to minister to man's happiness, and it he will be introduced into the walls of a Coldoes this in a large degree. Hence, Addi- lege, and sees the rostrum covered with bouson, Akenside and others have treated exten- quets in honor of his graduating speech. sively of its pleasures," while they have The student rests his throbbing temples on dispatched its "pains" in a few short sen- his desk and dreams of Senates enchained tences. But whether it will be productive by his eloquence, until he is awakened by of the one or the other depends wholly upon the thunders of raptu: ous applause. The its cultivation. A refined Imagination has affianced are happy in their mutuality of few pains a distorted one, few pleasures. love and plighted faith, yet they see in the As long as reason holds control over the bright future the time when their present Imagination, it is a contributor of good, but happiness will be but a cipher, and thus they when itself predominates, reason runs riot are always approaching the goal of happiand madness takes the reins. ness; for no matter how high we ascend the We have said that the chief aim of the ladder of human felicity, our Imagination Imagination is man's happiness. It supports never permits us to stand on the topmost us under the distresses incidental to life and round. Be We are indebted to the Imagination for boy on board a ship that is about to start on those splendid creations of Poets and Paint- a long voyage, imagines him visited by feers, Sculptors and Architects, that will be vers, storms and ship-wrecks. The miser admired so long as an uncorrupted taste shall will not hide his nakedness and still the last. It created More's Utopia, and fur- cravings of appetite, his gold the meanwhile nished it with the anomaly of perfect laws rusting in his coffers. John Elwes died worth and perfect government. It has perpetua- £800,000, and yet he used to eat meat ted, through the mouth of Homer, those glo- in the last stage of decomposition and he rious names of gods and men, which the would not clean his shoes, lest they would man is proud to record, with their deeds and wear out the sooner. And why? words, which will forever remain to remind cause he feared he would die of penury and posterity of their insignificance. It enabled want. We knew a man whose clothes were the Blind Bard of England's isle to behold made of nankeen the year round, and we and transcribe the beauties of "Paradise" once heard him say that he would like to eat that had been " "Lost" for five thousand a wild-duck to find out its taste, if he thought years. By it, he heard men, angels and he could afford it. And this man's property devils speak in thoughts that breathe and was worth $15,000. He was afraid of dywords that burn." It has placed a "Raven" ing in the poor-house! A man gifted with upon every mantle that will be croaking for- wealth, by some of those freaks in which evermore. It gave Rome her Titian and fortune delights to indulge, is suddenly reRafaelle, and us, a Trumbull and a Leutze. duced in his means. How does he act? It formed and fashioned in the mind of Mi- Does he bear it with good cheer and say: chael Angelo the magnificent and sublime" Its all right. Every cloud has its silver church of St. Peter's-the eighth wonder of lining, and He who wove it knows when to the world-long ere it was rendered visible turn it?" No! His mind falls a prey to and tangible by the utensils of labor. Clark trouble, fear and apprehension. His distortMills saw the Hero of New Orleans astride ed Imagination dwindles a competency to his careering war-horse of bronze long be- poverty-poverty to beggary, beggary to refore he was reared upon his pedestal at pulsion-repulsion to death of a broken heart. Washington, though rider and horse, both, So he repairs to the nearest tavern and seeks had crumbled into dust. In obedience to the that relief which only the wine-cup and the Imagination, the chisel of Greenough struck gambling table can give. The man in good Washington into a second and undying life circumstances does not compare himself with from the imbedded quarries of Italy, and the poor, but the rich, and envy immediatethus the grave of the tyrant hero became ly enters his hitherto peaceful abode, and the second mother of republican Washing- lo! all is repining and discontent. The Imagination peoples the world with dyspeptics, ton. 6 But we have said that the Imagination has who always look at the dark side of life's its pains-is productive of evil. We are picture-who go about moody and brooding, indebted to the Imagination for those hide- with pills in their pockets, and poisoning the ous creations of hob-goblins, ghosts, "Gor- mirth and enjoyment of all who come within gons, Hydras and Chimeras dire" that stalk their sight-who think it a sin to smile and about in the dark and dwell around grave- dance, and who frequently wind up the tragyards and in uninhabited houses. There are edy by dyeing their hands in the suicide's many persons who are not satisfied with the blood. ills they have, but go out of their way in search of others. They meet trouble more than half-way-sometimes before it has started. The farmer prophesies drought, pestilence and famine, before he has sown The hungry man is tantalized with sick banhis seed. The well man is haunted by the quets; the cold sees others sitting by bright fear of sickness, disease and death. The and genial fires; the sick thinks how he will mother, when she has placed her darling enjoy himself when he gets well, and be "The Imagination of the good comes eager and restless; the discarded im-crust of bread that hurt her as it was going agines the pleasure he would have experien-down, caused her to vomit, and cunningly. ced, had he been accepted, and the bleeding unseen, threw a crooked pin into the basin. wound is opened afresh; and the boy, under which the woman no sooner saw, but believ his mother's imprisonment, thinks of his ing she had cast it up, she presently found brother who is playing at bat, and the tear herself eased of her pain.” glides down his soft cheek. We read the following incident, which af The imagination should not be tampered fords us a fine illustration, many years. with. A student of William and Mary Col-ago-so many that we have forgotten when lege visited the Lunatic Asylum frequently. and where. A young lady had a fist-dog (we Once in jest he selected a cell for himself cannot find the word in our dictionaries, and and playfully remarked that he wished that a friend tells us it is not in Webster's unato be his dwelling-place, should he ever go bridged, but we spell it fist, because they are mad. He was often heard to regret that he not much larger than a man's fist,) to which had used such language. He subsequently she was very much attached. Once the lit became an inmate of the Staunton Asylum. tle dog playfully took it mistress' hand in its Miss Letitia E. Landon, the justly admired mouth and chanced to stick its teeth in the poetess, is said to have died as she made a skin. The lady thought nothing seriously of prominent character in one of her novels it. But in a few days the cry of "maddie; "by drinking the juice of almond blos-dogs" was raised, and lo and behold the soms." Montaigne says; "I myself knew fist was missing! The lady apprehended the a gentleman who having treated a great deal worst, and on the ninth day after the bite, of good company at his house, three or four took to her bed. Physicians were called in days after bragged in jest-for there was no but to have their skill baffled. Unmistakasuch thing that he had made them eat a ble signs of hydrophobia developed thembaked cat; at which a young gentleman, selves. She had to be tied down to the bedwho had been at the feast, took such a hor-posts. The room was crowded with symror, that falling into a violent vomiting and a pathizing friends and weeping relatives. A fever, there was no possible means to save scratching was heard at the door and it was him." Medical men, in all ages, have ad-opened. In ran the little dog and jumped mitted the imagination has much to do both upon its mistress' bed. She ejaculated: in curing and inducing diseases. Hence they This is my saviour," and it proved true. usually try to flatter their patients, each day The imagination is the most illimitable. impressing them with the belief that they monarch that reigns. Every man is his subare better than they were the day before, ject. His power is contracted by no pentand ridiculing the idea of death. "A man up Utica, and he sometimes exercises it with in a burning fever, leaning over his bedside, most despotic sway. Fienus relates a singupointed with his finger to the chamber door, lar instance of one whose delusion repredesiring those who were present to let him sented his body so large, that he thought it swim in that lake and then he should be impossible for him to get out of the room. cool. His physician humored the conceit, The physician, fancying there could be no the patient walked carefully about the room, better way of rectifying his imagination than seemed to feel the water gradually ascend-by letting him see that the thing could be ing to his neck, and at length having said done, ordered him to be carried out by force. that he felt himself cool and well was found The struggle was great; and the patient no in reality to be so." sooner saw himself outside of the door, than he fell into the same agonies of pain, as if his bones had been broken by being forced through a passage too small for him, and died immediately. Montaigne says, a woman fancying she had swallowed a pin in a piece of bread, cried out of an intolerable pain in her throat, where she thought she felt it stick. But an ingenious fellow that was brought to her, There is an account in a foreign Journal seeing no outward tumor or alteration, sup- of a young lady who attended for the first posing it only to be conceit taken at some time the music of an orchestra, with which she was exceedingly pleased. She imagined she heard the sounds distinctly and in order, for weeks and months, till her whole system becoming disordered in consequence of it, she died. MENTAL PHILOSOPHY. BY W. S. GRAYSON, ESQ. During the American Revolution a soldier, If the reader will turn to page 80 of the who had committed some crime, was condemned to be shot. He was finally pardon- that we therein held that man was a comFebruary No. of the Messenger he will find ed, but the knowledge of the pardon was kept from him, since it was thought advisa-pound being, compounded of will and intelligence. ble that he should be made to suffer as much How this sentence escaped correction, it as possible from the fear of death. Accord is now unnecessary to enquire, but entirely ingly he was led at the appointed time to the erroneous as it is, it serves the purpose of place of execution; the bandage was placed enabling us to place the cardinal doctrine over his eyes; and the soldiers were drawn which it is our wish to urge upon the attenout, but were privately ordered to fire over tion of the public in its proper light. his head. At the discharge of the muskets, though nothing touched him, he fell dead. We regard man as an elementary princi“A criminal was once sentenced in Eng-ple. This elementary principle is endowed land to be executed, when a College of phy- with will and intelligence. sicians requested to make him the subject of an experiment connected with their profession. It was granted. The man was told that his sentence was commuted and he was to be bled to death. On the appointed day several physicians went to his prison, and a made the requisite preparations in his presence, the lancet was displayed; bowls were in readiness to receive the blood, and the culprit was directed to place himself on his A unit or elementary principle devoid of a back, with his arm extended, ready to re-power of activity, or power of motion, would ceive the fatal incision. When all this was not properly describe the character of man, done, his eyes were bandaged. In the mean because man as an immortal and immaterial time a sufficient quantity of lukewarm water being, is a being of activity. had been provided; his arm was merely There are very many elementary princitouched with the lancet, and the water pour-ples of activity observed in the life which ed slowly over it, was made to trickle down have no thinking capacity. Under this class, into the bowl below. One of the physicians come all animals below man. They are all felt his pulse and the others frequently ex- elementary principles of activity, but they do changed such remarks as- He is nearly not think-thus move under the law of inexhausted-cannot hold out much longer-stinct. We regard the distinction as very great and very important. Man is a unit and as such has certain qualities. As a unit he thinks and acts. A unit, or elementary principle devoid of thinking capacity, but endowed with activity, would not describe man as an immortal and immaterial being, because man is a thinking being. grows very pale,' &c.; and in a short time an thinks, but that is not all that he does. the patient actually died from the force of He also wills and acts. imagination." What an evil the greatest Man wills and acts, but that is not all that good may become by its perversion! What he does. He also thinks. a pity that man should thus trifle with one of the greatest blessings his Maker has given him and thus make it the greatest curse! NELLA. Burnt Ordinary. Hence you will observe that the philosophy which I advocate, regards man as elementary, and as clementary, thinks and wills; so that it is man that thinks and not mind that thinks, it is man that wills and acts and not will that wills and acts. The philosophy which we wish to teach and the current philosophy of the day differ primarily in the |