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 ...

I N! AV CXINS ATION. 85 09
education produce on the intellectual character. Among the
natives of wild and solitary countries, we may expect to meet
with sublime exertions of poetical imagination and of philosophical research; while those men whose attention has been
dissipated from infancy amidst the bustle of the world, and
whose current of thought has been trained to yield and accommodate itself; every moment, to the rapid succession of trifles,
which diversify fashionable life, acquire, without any effort on
their part, the intellectual habits which are favorable to gayety,
vivacity, and wit.
TVry-.incagtinctive persons may cppeear almost insane. - ~When
a man, under the habitual influence of a warm imagination, is
oblied to mingle occasionally in scenes of real business, he is
perpetually in danger of being misled by his own enthusiasm.
What we call good sense in the conduct of life, consists chiefly
in that temper of mind which enables its possessor to view, at
all times, with perfect coolness and accuracy, all the various circumstances of his situation, so that each of them may produce
its due impression on him, without any exaggeration arising from
its own peculiar habits. But to a man of an ill-regulated
imagination, external circumstances only serve as hints to excite
his own thoughts, and the conduct he pursues has, in general, far
less reference to his real situation, than to some imaginary ont,
in which he conceives himself to be placed; in consequence of
which, while he appears to himself to be acting with the most
perfect wisdom and consistency, he may frequently exhibit to
others all the appearances of folly. Such, pretty nearly, seems
to be the idea which the author (Madame de Stael Holstein) of
the "Reflections on the Character and Writings of Rousseau,"
has formed of that extraordinary man. "His faculties," we are
told, "were slow in their operation, but his heart was ardent; it
was in consequence of his own meditations that he became impassioned; he discovered no sudden emotions, but all his feelings
grew upon reflection. It has, perhaps, happened to him to fall
in love gradually with a woman, by dwelling on the idea of her
during her absence. Sometimes he would part with you with
all Lis former affection; but if an expression had escaped you,