Elements of the philosophy of the human mind. By Dugald Stewart. Rev. and abridged, with critical and explanatory notes, for the use of colleges and schools. By Francis Bowen ...

THE ASSOCIATION OF IDEAS. 163
nect our thoughts together, when they are suffered to take their
natural course, and when we are conscious of little or no active
exertion. Of the latter kind, are the relations of cause and
effect, of means and end, of prenmises and conclusion; and those
others, which regulate the train of thought in the mind of the
philosopher when he is engaged in a particular investigation.
It is owing to this distinction, that transitions, which would be
highly offensive in philosophical writing, are the most pleasing
of' any in poetry. In the former species of composition, we
expect to see an author lay down a distinct plan or method,
and observe it rigorously; without allowing himself to ramble
into digressions, suggested by the accidental ideas or expressions, which may occur to him in his progress. In that state
of mind in which poetry is read, such digressions are not only
agreeable, but necessary to the effect; and an arrangement
founded on the spontaneous and seemingly casual order of our
thoughts, pleases more than one suggested by an accurate
analysis of the subject.
How absurd would the long digression in praise of industry, in Thomson's "Autumn," appear, if it occurred in a
prose essay! a digression, however, which, in that beautiful
poem, arises naturally and insensibly from the view of a luxuriant harvest;. and which as naturally leads the poet back to
the point where his excursion began:"All is the gift of industry; whate'er
Exalts, embellishes, and renders life
Delightful. Pensive Winter, cheered by him,
Sits at the social fire, and happy hears
Th' excluded tempest idly rave along;
His harden'd fingers deck the gaudy Spring;
Without him Summer were an arid waste;
Nor to th' Autumnal months could thus transmit
Those full, mature, immeasurable stores,
That, waving round, recall my wand'ring song."
In Goldsmith's " Traveller," the transitions are managed with
consummate skill; and yet how different from that logical
method which would be suited to a plilosophical discourse on
the state of society in the different parts of Europe! Some of