COtnaCicu i^mi Liln'atltVC. 219 



Wc then insensibly relinquish our employment, 

 to think on the storm which endangered our 

 life ; or oh the country and friends, from 

 whence the vessel conveyed us. May not a 

 similar process rouse us from this trance, and 

 recall 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, prior to its 

 commencement ? — In either way the reverie 

 will be terminated. The firing of cannon may 

 break in upon my fit of absence. When once 

 awakened, but not till then I become con- 

 scious that I have been guilty of relaxation 

 from the vigilance of attention, and return to 

 my study, pleased, perhaps, with the excur- 

 sion, but not without dissatisfaction on account 

 of my loss of time. The same efTect may be 

 produced in the instance of the simile already 

 mentioned, if the associated ideas to wliich the 

 simile of the ocean had led me, taking a retro- 

 grade direction, conduct me back to the pri- 

 jnar}' subject of comparison. 

 (. 'When listening to the discourse of an orator, 

 pr lecture of a teaclier, we digress in a similar 

 manner, and are recalled by a look from the 

 speaker; — by a pause; — by a sudden transition; 

 Ee 2 



