their natural courfe, and when we are confcious of little or no active exertion. Of the latter kind, are the relations of Caufe and Effect, of Means and End, of Premises and Conclufion; and those others, which regulate the train of thought in the mind of the philofopher, when he is engaged in a particular investigation.

It is owing to this distinction, that tranfitions, which would be highly offenfive in philofophical writings, are the most pleasing of any in poetry. In the former fpecies of compofition, we expect to fee an author lay down a distinct plan or method, and obferve it rigorously; without allowing himself to ramble into digreffions, fuggefted by the accidental ideas or expreffions which may occur to him in his progrefs. In that ftate of mind in which poetry is read, fuch digreffions are not only agreeable, but neceffary to the effect; and an arrangement founded on the fpontaneous and feemingly cafual order of our thoughts, pleases, more than one fuggefted by an accurate analysis of the fubject.

How abfurd would the long digreffion in praise of Industry, in Thompson's Autumn, appear, if it occurred in a profe effay!-a digreffion, however, which, in that beautiful poem, arifes naturally and infenfibly from the view of a luxuriant harveft; and which as naturally leads the Poet back to the points where his excurfion began:

All is the gift of Industry; whate'er
Exalts, embellishes, and renders life
Delightful. Pensive Winter, cheer'd 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, recal my wand'ring Song.

In Goldfmith's Traveller, the transitions are maaged with confummate skill; and yet, how different from that logical method which would be fuited to a philofophical difcourfe on the state of fociety in the different parts of Europe! Some of the finest are fuggefted by the affociating principle of Contraft. Thus, after defcribing the effeminate and debafed Romans, the Poet proceeds to the Swiss:

My soul, tum from them-turn we to survey
Where rougher climes a nobler race display.

And, after painting fome defects in the manners of this gallant but unrefined people, his thoughts are led to thofe of the French:

To kinder skies, where gentler manners reign,

I turn and France displays her bright domain.

The tranfition which occurs in the following lines, feems to be fuggefted by the accidental mention of a word; and is certainly one of the happiest in our language.

Heavens! how unlike their Belgic Sires of old!
Rough, poor, content, ungovernably bold;

War in each breast, and freedom on each brow,
How much unlike the Sons of Britain now!
-Fired at the sound, my Genius spreads her wing,
And flies, where Britain courts the western spring.

Numberless illustrations of the fame remark might be collected from the ancient Poets, more particu larly from the Georgics of Virgil, where the fingu. lar felicity of the tranfitions has attracted the notice even of those, who have been the leaft difpofed to indulge themselves in philofophical refinements concerning the principles of Criticism. A celebrated

inftance of this kind occurs in the end of the first Book -the confideration of the weather and of its common prognoftics leading the fancy, in the first

place, to thofe more extraordinary phenomena which, according to the fuperftitious belief of the vulgar, are the forerunners of political Revolutions; and, afterwards, to the death of Cæfar, and the battles of Pharfalia and Philippi. The manner in which the Poet returns to his original subject, difplays that exquifite art which is to be derived only from the. diligent and enlightened study of nature.

Scilicet et tempus veniet, cùm finibus illis.
Agricola, incurvo terram molitus aratro,
Exesa inveniet scabra rubigine pila;

Aut gravibus rastris galeas pulsabit inanes,
Grandiaque effossis mirabitur ossa sepulchris.

The facility with which ideas are affociated in the mind, is very different in different individuals a circumftance which, as I fhall afterwards fhew, lays the foundation of remarkable varieties among men, both in respect of genius and of character. I am inclined, too, to think that in the other sex (proba. : bly in confequence of early education) ideas are more eafily affociated together, than in the minds of men. Hence the liveliness of their fancy, and the fuperiority they poffefs in epiftolary writing, and in those kinds of poetry, in which the principal recon mendations are, ease of thought and expreffion. Hence, too, the facility with which they contract or lofe habits, and accommodate their minds to new fitua tions; and, I may add, the difpofition they have to that species of fuperftition which is founded on accidental combinations of circumftances. The influ ence which this facility of affociation has on the pow er of Tafte, fhall be afterwards confidered.

Of the Power which the Mind has over the Train of its Thoughts.

BY means of the Affociation of Ideas, a conftant current of thoughts, if I may use the expreffion, is made to pass through the mind while we are awake. Sometimes the current is interrupted, and the thoughts diverted into a new channel, in confequence of the ideas fuggefted by other men, or of the objects of perception with which we are furrounded. So completely, however, is the mind in this particular fubjected to phyfical laws, that it has been juftly obferved, we cannot, by an effort of our will, call up any one thought; and that the train of our ideas depends on causes which operate in a manner inexplicable by us.

This obfervation, although it has been cenfured as paradoxical, is almost felt-evident; for, to call up a particular thought, fuppofes it to be already in the mind. As I fhall have frequent occafion, however, to refer to the observation afterwards, I fhall endeavor to obviate the only objection which, I think, can reasonably be urged againft it; and which is founded on that operation of the mind, which is commonly called recollection or intentional memory..

It is evident, that, before we atteinpt to recollect the particular circumftances of any event, that event in general muft have been an object of our attention. We remember the outlines of the ftory, but cannot at first give a complete account of it. If we wish to recal thefe circumftances, there are only two ways in which we can proceed. We muft either form dif

*By Lord KAIMES, and others.

ferent fuppofitions, and then confider which of these taliies beft with the other circumftances of the event; or, by revolving in our mind the circumftances we remember, we must endeavor to excite the recollec tion of the other circumftances affociated with them. The first of these proceffes is, properly fpeaking, an inference of reafon, and plainly furnishes no excep tion to the doctrine already delivered. We have an jaftance of the other mode of recollection, when we are at a lofs for the beginning of a fentence in reciting a compofition that we do not perfectly remem. ber; in which case we naturally repeat over, two or three times, the concluding words of the preceding fentence, in order to call up the other words which ufed to be connected with them in the memory. In this inftance, it is evident, that the circumstances we defire to remember, are not recalled to the mind in immediate confequence of an exertion of volition, but are fuggefted by fome other circumftances with which they are connected, independently of our will, by the laws of our conftitution.

Notwithstanding, however, the immediate dependence of the train of our thoughts on the laws of affociation, it must not be imagined that the will pof feffes no influence over it. This influence, indeed, is not exercifed directly and immediately, as we are apt to fuppofe, on a fuperficial view of the fubject: but it is, neverthelefs, very extenfive in its effects; and the different degrees in which it is poffeffed by different individuals, conftitute fome of the moft ftriking inequalities among men, in point of intellec tual capacity.

Of the powers which the mind poffeffes over the train of its thoughts, the most obvious is its power of fingling out any one of them at pleasure; of detaining it; and of making it a particular object of attention. By doing fo, we not only ftop the fucceffion that would otherwise take place; but in con