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REVERIE; 



OOKSIDEUED AS CONNECTED WITH LITERATURE. 



AN ESSAY. 



Ry ihe Rev. JOHNSON GJ8-ANX, A. B. 



of St. John's College," Oxon. 

 (Read June £S> iSoz.) 



It is a frequent process, and often one of the 

 highest pleasures of the mind, to become in- 

 sensible to the pursuits in which it is more 

 immediately engaged, and yielding to iinpres- 

 sions which lead to more interesting trains of 

 ideas, to suffer itself to be carried by them to 

 an imaginary contemplation of distant scenes, 

 or speaking over of former conversations^ — ^to 

 a recollection of past transactions or anticipa- 

 tion of future enjoyments. This mental ob- 

 servation is known by the name of Reverie : 

 and is also expressed in common conversation 

 by the emphatical metaphor — absence of 

 mind. 

 Without entering into the question how far 



