'226 Reverie, considered as 



from abstinence and excess.* For too great 

 abstinence is a direct cause of mental weak- 

 ness ; while repletion renders body and mind 

 sluggish and torpid. 



It is the property of stimulating articles of 

 diet to bestow a temporary vigour, a strong- 

 action of the system, which is soon followed 

 by exhaustion^ Men of genius, as Browm and 

 Erskine, have accordingly been reported to 

 have swallowed quantities of laudanum, pre- 

 vious to any occasion when it was necessary to 

 call forth all the powers of their mind. Not 

 content with the moderate and. judicious tonic 

 of a frugal and healthful meal, thev 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, invigorated. It is en- 

 abled to resist the attack of impressions foreign 

 to the subject in which it is engaged ; — im- 

 pressions, which perpetually attempt to lure it 

 from that subject into the mazes of reverie.—r 

 But, as the force of the mind is then encreased, 



* It is after dinner that our poet Covvper, (Jescribes 

 himself as pleased with (he movement of his shadow on 

 the cielin^, and as thrown into a train of musing by the 

 objects which his. fancy beheld in the fire. 



