cenaeeied tciflt LUtrafure. 241 



will get the better even ui dcvution, may be 

 seen by referring to our great dramatic bard.— 



** When I would think and pray, I think and pr/iy, 

 To «:everal subjecfs heaven hath my empty words, 

 Whiht my invention, hearing nol my tongue, ancl.ors 

 on Isobel." 



Idle and unprofitable reveries may be albo 

 broken, by having our study hung round 

 with portraits of heroes and worthies ; of 

 ancient and modern authors ; of any who have 

 attained eminence or power, by mental ac- 

 tivity and perseverance, and are calculated to 

 rouse the slumbering mind to emulatiojn and 

 energy. And in like manner may we dissolve 

 the spell of reveries, into which evil thoughts 

 are apt to enter, by the pictures of a Saviour, 

 or of a departed or sainted friend. Who would 

 not return, with a blush, from whatever cri- 

 minal conceptions he had hung upon, when he 

 encountered the eye, and fancied that he be- 

 held the frown of personages so sacred ? 



To propose a total preventive? or cure for 

 the disease I have been considering, has 

 neither been my aim nor my wish. The aim 

 would be ineffectual, as long as npind and 

 body depend and reciprocally act on each 

 other, as they do in the present existence. — 

 The wish would be the dictate of that cold 

 philosophy, wliich seeks to shut up one inlet 

 Hh 



