05r REVERIE, 119 



body and mind, whatever impairs the firm tone of the Literary men 

 animal fibre, ought to be studiously avoided by those ^j'J|^^^^° ^J^J,^ 

 whose habits are literary. The debility subsequent to a bility, for these 

 debauch, a warm climate, fatigue, corpulency, are all ^^^ou^ revene, 

 favourable to reverie. And every thing that braces the 

 fibre, and gives the system (not a sudden and artificial in- 

 crease of action, ) but permanent strength and exhilara- 

 tion should, with equal care be resorted to. 



But for the mental disorder, which has been the subject Mental reme- 

 of our discussion, we must look, in the second place, for • ^S^i^^' ^^' 

 other remedies in the mind itself, w^hen considered ab- 

 stractedly from tlie body. 



Much benefit will be derived from conquering a sickly To avoid light 

 taste for light and desultory reading, and abstaining from reading. 

 an immediate application to the fine arts. When they, 

 who have indulged in such pursuits, engage in studies of 

 more solid utility, they find the perusal of historic facts, 

 or the prosecution of philosophical arguments, perpetually ^ 

 interrupted by the involuntary remembrance of their fa- 

 vourite and less severe employments. Mathematics is a Mathematics 

 science worthy of being recommended to youth, and, recommended, 

 indeed, demanding the attention of all whose habits are 

 literary ; not so much for its own sake, or for that of the 

 other sciences which cannot be understood without a 

 knowledge of it, as on account of its implanting habits of 

 abstraction and of bestowing the ability to fasten the 

 powers of the mind upon any subject, and to pursue it 

 till it is thoroughly investigated*. 



Here, however, a caution is necessary* Elegant litera- ^"^ elegant H- 

 ture and the fine arts, although thus paralysing to the coSderS^^a^^ 

 mind when they are made the main object of pursuit, an exhilarating 

 may in certain cases be called in with advantage, as re- refreshment. 

 medies for reverie. When the mind is under the influence 



* In comparing the effects of the different leading branches of Qxford and 

 education at our two universities, it has been remarked, that per- Cambridge stu- 

 sons who have studied at Cambridge, adhere long and steadily to an dents coni- 

 argument, in conv^crsation ; while Oxonians, whose pursuits are P^^ed. 

 more elegant than philosophical, are content with a more superficial 

 examination of many subjects; but afford greater pleasures to their 

 companions, by the desultory variety of the ideas which thc^y com- 

 municate. 



of 



