1 16 ON REVERIE. 



atmosphere. The influence of different states of tho 

 atmosphere, in sharpening or hebetating the powers of the 

 mind, was so well known to the ancients, that to this 

 cause they sometimes ascribed the diversities of national 

 character. '' Inter locorum naturas quantum intersit, 

 vidimus. Athenis, tenue coelum ; ex quo acutiores etiam 



putantur Attici: crassum Thebis, itaque pingues 



' Thebani." A sharp and salubrious atmosphere, by invi- 

 gorating the frame, will thus render the mind alert and 

 active, and intent upon i^s employment, 



!— and by tern- Another important remedy for habitual reverie is tem- 

 * perate living, equally removed from abstinence and ex~ 



cess*. For too great abstinence is a direct cause of men- 

 tal weakness ; while repletion renders body and mind 

 sluggish and torpid. 



—-and also by j^ jg ^j^g property of stimulating articles of diet to be- 

 stow a temporary vigour, a strong action of the system, 

 which is soon followed by exhaustion. Men of genius, 

 as Brown and Erskine, have accordingly been reported to 

 have swallowed quantities of laudanum, previous to any 

 occasion when it was necessary to call forth all the powers 

 of their mind. Not content with the moderate and judi- 

 cious tonic of a frugal and healthful meal, they have im- 

 providently applied violent stimulants. But let not this 

 fact be thought to militate against our argument. As 

 long as the stimulus acts, the mind is, doubtless, invigo- 

 rated. It is enabled to resist the attack of impressions 

 foreign to the subject in wjiich it is engaged ; — impres- 

 sions, which perpetually attempt to lure it from that sub- 



— but these ject into the mazes of reverie. — But, as the force of the 



destroy the mind is then increased, by borrowing to-morrow's energy 

 for the service of to-day, to-morrow will be spent in 

 languor. The consequences indeed are less pernicious to 

 the orator than they were to the physician. His mind 

 may recruit its strength before a new exertion of its fa- 

 culties is demanded. But the lecturer, whose labours 

 were quotidian, must have entered his class with faculties 



* It is after dinner that our poet Cowper, describes himself £\s 

 pleased with the movement of his shadow on the ceiling, and as 

 thrown Into a train of musing by the objects which his fancy beheld 

 in the fire. 



enfeeble4 





