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another. They occupy the attention, entirely abstract- 

 ing it from all other considerations; and they produce 

 a calm agreeable temper of mind. 



Their abstracting and absorbing power is very re- 

 markable, and is known to all geometricians. Every 

 one has found how much more swiftly time passes 

 when spent in such investigations, than in any other 

 occupation either of the senses or even of the mind. 

 Sir Isaac Newton is related to have very frequently 

 forgotten the season of meals, and left his food await- 

 ing for hours his arrival from his study. A story is 

 told of his being entirely shut up and disappearing, as 

 it were eclipsed, and then shining forth grasping the 

 great torch which he carried through the study of the 

 heavens ; he had invented the Fluxional Calculus. I 

 know not if there be any foundation for the anecdote ; 

 but that he continually remained engaged with his re- 

 searches through the night is certain, and that he then 

 took no keep of time is undeniable. It does not re- 

 quire the same depth of understanding to experience 

 the effects of such pursuits in producing complete ab- 

 straction ; every geometrician is aware of them in his 

 own case. The sun goes down unperceived, and the 

 night wanes afterwards till he again rises upon our 

 labours. 



They who have experienced an incurable wound in 

 some prodigious mental affliction, have confessed, that 

 nothing but mathematical researches could withdraw 

 their attention from their situation. Instances are well 

 known of a habit of drinking being cured by the like 

 means ; an inveterate taste for play has within my own 

 observation been found to give way before the revival 

 of an early love of analytical studies. This is possibly 

 a cause of the other tendency, which has been men- 

 tioned, the calming of the mind. We have seen in the 

 life of Simson, how he would fly from the conflicts of 

 metaphysical and theological science, to that of neces- 

 sary truth, and how in those calm retreats he ever 



