110 MENTAL OPERATIONS IN RELATION TO TIME. 



part of our nature. So much must be conceded to the 

 materialist, whatever use he may make of it. Look, 

 too, at the influence of weather on the mind, felt, in- 

 deed, more generally than is recognised. He must be 

 a man of blunt sensibility who is not exhilarated by a 

 sudden burst of sunshine amidst the clouds and gloom 

 of a stormy day, or softened by the still repose of a 



summer evening. 



These continuous changes may be said, in fact, to 

 embody in themselves the totality of life, of which they 

 are the active and direct expression. Occurring in 

 those whose lot is cast in the higher places of the 

 world, the effects of such passing moods of mind are 

 often wide and lasting. The obscure or secret por- 

 tions of history, cherished as such by learned and 

 ingenious historians, might in many cases, I doubt not, 

 be best construed through these erratic states of our 

 common nature which govern monarchs, ministers, and 

 leaders of armies, as well as lesser men. There is more 

 of this in the philosophy of history than can ever be 

 told. 



A few remarks still remain before quitting our en- 

 quiry. I have already suggested that the term of suc- 

 cession might well be substituted for that of association 

 of ideas. It is obvious that the acts or states of 

 memory, the most mechanical of the intellectual func- 

 tions, must come under the same view ; and the vaga- 

 ries, as they may well be called, of this great function 

 are in truth best interpreted by this method of enquiry. 

 Eecollection, however (the am/ii^cris of Aristotle, who 

 well draws the distinction), has a higher interest as an 



