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 INFLUENCE OF CASUAL ASSOCIATIONS. 219
lie is apt to censure them as unnatural, and to despise them as
absurd. There are two classes of men who have more particularly been charged with this weakness; those who are placed
at the bottom, and those who have reached the summit, of the
scale of refinement; the former from ignorance, and the latter
from national vanity.
For curing this class of' prejudices, the obvious expedient
which nature points out to us, is to extend our acquaintance
with human affairs, either by means of books, or of personal
observation. The effects of travelling, in enlarging and in enlightening the mind, are obvious to our daily experience; and
similar advantages may be derived, (although, perhaps, not in
an equal degree,) from a careful study of the manners of past
ages or of distant nations, as they are described by the historian. In making, however, these attempts for our intellectual
improvement, it is of the utmost colsequence to us to vary, to
a considerable degree, the objects of our attention, in order to
prevent any danger of our acquiring an exclusive preference
for the caprices of any one people, whose political situation, or
whose moral character, may attach us to them as faultless
models for our imitation. The same weakness and versatility
of' mind, the same facility of association, which, in the case of
a person who has never extended his views beyond his own
community, is a source of national prejudice and of national
bigotry, renders the mind, when formed into new situations,
easily susceptible of other prejudices no less capricious; and
frequently prevents the time, which is devoted to travelling, or
to study, fiom being subservient to any better purpose, than an
importation of foreign fashions, or a still more ludicrous imitation of ancient follies.
The philosopher whose thoughts dwell habitually, not merely
upon what is, or what has been, but upon what is best and
most expedient for mankind; who, to the study of books, and
the observation of manners, has added a careful examination of
the principles of the human constitution, and of those which
ought to regulate the social order; is the only person who is
effectually secured against both the weaknesses which I have