Those of a romantic or melancholy cast, feel, at seasons, the deepest pleasure in contracting their sails and their desires, and revelling in the luxury of their own mental resources.

I consider there is a certain quantity of mad blood in the world, which is sure to develope itself in some way, but which is often checked and diverted, or prevented from producing its ultimate effects, by the variety of absurd opinions which, in one department or another, are always to be met with or invented.

The history of the generality comprises little besides the history of their circumstances. The history of genius is the history of the thoughts. Genius is incalculably more influenced by mind than by events.

Except in the arts and sciences, or for special purposes, adherence to habits of systematic study and meditation, shackles the powers, and impedes excursive or original reflections. This sentiment, however, will always be deemed heretical by minds of a secondary order, who seem to imagine that labour is intrinsically meritorious, and that nothing is valuable but what is the result of drudgery.

The effect of wit is perhaps more dependent on the structure of the mind to which it is addressed, than any other species of mental emanation.

One general maxim is worth a hundred particular instances, apart from their principle.

In proportion to the vigour of the mind, is the necessity of energetic occupation for its powers.

Persons of the most capacious and active genius, usually become soonest weary of the things to which their attention is applied, whether scenery, pursuits, or trains of meditation. The fact is, that by the energy and compass of their powers, they quickly penetrate and exhaust a subject, so that afterwards it presents few additional features for contemplation or inquiry.

It is pleasing to observe, how frequently those qualities in our nature which generally require to be counteracted, become, in effect, the occasions of our advantage. We are prone, for example, to neglect whatever is imposed as a task; yet this disposition is often a preservative from considerable injury in education, where the subjects or modes of study prescribed are, in numbers of instances, more adapted to contract and deaden the mental faculties, than to foster their expansion or sensibility.

The bolder and more excursive are our inquiries, the better, if equal diligence be employed in the process of verification. Unless the mind is free from a contracted adherence to prevalent opinions, its powers will ever remain in a state of pupilage, and no prospect of intellectual proficiency can be rationally entertained.

It seems at first view extraordinary, that many who reason correctly on some topics, should fail to do so on others. The explanation, however, appears to be the same with that which applies to diversities of sentiment among different persons. In all cases of error, only a part of the subject is perceived. Let the particulars which go to make up truth on any question, be brought equally before ten thousand separate minds, and they will all adopt the same accurate conclusions. In one sense, all minds are equal, just as all eyes are equal. Men differ, not in the natural faculty of judging, but in the extent to which the facts or ideas that constitute the materials of judgment, obtain admission to the understanding. Erroneous views, therefore, are owing simply to the circumstance, that the elements of correct opinion are incompletely before the mind, whether from its inadequate dimensions, its subjection to prejudice, or its impatience; in consequence of which the subject is examined in a partial or cursory manner. Whenever the whole of truth is present to the

mind, conviction must be the necessary result.

If the literary were more abandoned to their own reflections and criticisms, their minds would be proportionally more sound and masculine.

Genius is ever of an effervescent character, and requires some vent for its own relief. If its activity can be limited to intellectual subjects, and employed chiefly in registering its own thoughts or emotions, its vigour and superiority will probably be displayed to the best advantage.

Perhaps the leading characteristic of a superior mind, is a power of compression; a faculty which presupposes that of generalization. An inferior understanding never perceives more than certain fragments or mutilated portions of a subject.

Where there is extreme susceptibility of impressions from passing objects or occurrences, a rather secluded mode of life is preferable for genius, in order to allow sufficient scope for its unbiassed operations.

Minds that move principally in the higher realms of thought, can form but a faint idea of the modes of reflection which characterize the

majority of mankind, or of the impressions which they receive from particular scenes or events.

An ardent and impassioned mind, when impelled to some difficult or illustrious enterprise, often flatters itself with the prospect of subsequent remission; but after the object is achieved, the fire still glows in the breast, and stimulates to fresh efforts, till life itself is consumed with the restless energy.

The argument from analogy is of more general application than any other in the concerns of ordinary life; and, with all its susceptibility of perversion, is of essential service in comprehensive and original speculations.

Of some minds, the first decisions are almost invariably the best: subsequent meditation serves only to bewilder their conceptions. This is chiefly the case with imaginative minds; and in general, perhaps, with those of women, who seem to arrive at results more by a species of intuition, than by a process of reasoning. On the other hand, certain persons, and those often of the deepest intellect, appear incapable of forming accurate notions with promptitude. Their thoughts must hover for a while over the generalities of the subject; but the conclusions which they ultimately adopt, are almost sure to be of the genuine stamp.