218 Reverie, considered as 



tained, dwelling upon my mind; I shall find 

 it difficult to fix my attention — my thoughts 

 will be perpetually recurring to this more in- 

 teresting subject; my inclination to wander, 

 and my desire to improve will carry on an 

 equal contest ; and I shall discover, or^ laying 

 aside my book, that I have been reading one 

 thing, and pondering on another. This double 

 operation of the mind, constitutes that species 

 of re\ erie which is peculiar to literary persons; 

 Our train of thought is disturbed, when any 

 of our senses is acted upon by some quality in 

 an external object, which tends to introduce a 

 new series of reflections. Thus, distant music 

 may draw away attention from the book we 

 peruse, to a scene, w^here the same sounds 

 WTre formerly heard by us; Or, in the course 

 of reading, we may meet with a passage, 

 which suggests reflections irrelevant to the main 

 subject. From these, when the mind is con- 

 veyed to them, the transition is easy to others, 

 with which they are connected ; and in this 

 manner fancy may rove, for an unlimited tijne, 

 through an unlimited range of ideas. The 

 ocean, for example, may be introduced as a 

 simile, illustrative of a metaphysical argu- 

 ment. 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. — 



