THOUGHT. 17 



purposeless, and the " absent man," as we not im- 

 properly call him, falls into ditches, and runs his 

 head against posts ; whereas, the sleep-walker 

 keeps his footing and makes his way in situations 

 where he would not venture, or venturing would 

 fall, if wide awake. 



Thus the fact of remembering has nothing to do 

 either with sleeping or waking ; for it may be pre- 

 sent or absent in both states ; and the probability 

 is, that we think just as much in an hour of the 

 most dreamless sleep, as we do when we are wide 

 awake for an hour. As little does the fact of re- 

 membering depend on the mere thought the " act 

 of the mind" in thinking, for that is too airy a 

 nothing for the most lively imagination to give it 

 " a local habitation," though we all can give it " a 

 name," and " the sign" of that name can be writ- 

 ten, and all can know it if they will. It is not 

 very probable that when the author of " The Re- 

 jected Addresses" wasted his own wits in that most 

 inimitable of all imitations, he had any intention 

 of dealing in philosophy ; but so philosophic is 

 genius, even in its sportive moments, that the 

 most ludicrous form of expression will not hide the 

 sterling sense ; and we never laugh happily and 

 heartily unless at that which is full of meaning. In 

 pushing the parody on Byron's philosophical, but 

 somewhat conceited misanthropy, to an absurdity, 

 Smith says, 



" Thinking is but an idle waste of thought ; " 



but that, instead of being even an approach to an 

 absurdity, is a positive and practical truth, and 

 one of the most important that ever was uttered. 

 c3 



