112 



Instance of 

 mental wan- 

 dering. 



Reverie may 

 terminate it- 

 self, or be 

 broken by ex- 

 ternal events. 



The look and 

 action of an 

 orator fix the 

 attention and 

 prevent reve- 

 rie. 



OJ7 llEVEJfllE. 



Thus, distant music may draw away attention from thd 

 book we peruke, to a scene, where the same sounds were 

 formerly heard by us. Or, in the course of reading, we 

 may meet with a passage, which suggests reflections irre- 

 lerant to the main subject. From these, when the mind 

 is conveyed to them, the transition is easy to others, with 

 which they are connected; and in this manner fancy may 

 rove, for an unlimited time, through an unlimited range 

 of ideas. The ocean, for example, may be introduced as 

 a simile, illustrative of a metaphysical argument. Fancy 

 will be drawn for a moment to the ocean, and if we have 

 ever beheld it, or crossed it, the incident will present 

 itself. — We then insensibly relinquish our employment 

 to think on the storm which endangered our life; or on 

 the country and friends, from whence the vessel conveyed 

 us. May not a similar process rouse us from this trance, 

 and recal us to the occupation we had left ? — May not a 

 new and unusual impulse upon any organ of sense, startle 

 and remind us, that we are trifling with time ? — May not 

 the train of ideas, furnished by the reverie itself, lead us 

 back to the very subject which engaged us, pripr to its 

 commencement? — In either May the reverie will be ter- 

 minated. The firing of cannon may break in upon my 

 fit of absence. When once awakened, but not till then 

 I become conscious that I have been guilty of relaxation 

 from the vigilance of attention, and return to my study, 

 pleased, perhaps, with the excursion, but not without 

 dissatisfaction on account of my loss of time. The same 

 effect may be produced in the instance of the simile al- 

 ready mentioned, if the associated ideas to which the 

 simile of the ocean had led me^ taking a retrograde direc- 

 tion, conduct me back to the primary subject of com- 

 parison. 



When listening to the discourse of an orator, or lecture 

 of a teacher, we digress in a similar manner, and are re- . 

 called by a look from the speaker; — by a pause; — by a 

 sudden transition; anew figure; or a felicity of diction 

 or of thought. This reflection may SQrve to analize the 

 art of keeping attention aAvake in others. — It may recom- 

 mend the impressions we have enumeratedy^ as useful ex- 

 pedients in oratory ; and explain the principle, which 



makes 



