MIND. 35 



veloped, and properly acted on, the mind is vigorous : accordingly, 

 as it varies with age, in quality and bulk, is the mind also varied, 

 the mind of the child is weak and very excitable, of the adult 

 vigorous and firm, and of the old man weak and dull, exactly like 

 the body d ; and the character of the mind of an individual agrees 



d If of children it is said, 



" Inter se quas pro levibus noxiis iras gerunt? 



Quapropter? quia enim qui eos gubernat animus, infirmum gerunt." 



Terence, Hecyra. 



The old man, " Res omnes timide gelideque ministrat, 



Dilator, spe longus, iners " Horace, Ars Poetica. 



Or, in the plainer language of Shakspeare, " Old men have grey beards, their 

 faces are wrinkled, their eyes purging thick amber and plum-tree gum, and they 

 have a plentiful lack of wit, together with most weak hams." 



Hamlet, act 2. sc. 2. 



Mr. Dugald Stewart allows that " In the case of old men, it is generally found 

 that a decline of the faculties keeps pace with the decay of bodily health and 

 vigour. The few exceptions that occur to the universality of this fact, only prove 

 that there are some diseases fatal to life, which do not injure those parts of the 

 body with which the intellectual operations are more immediately connected." 

 Outlines of Moral Philosophy, p. 233. 



" Praeterea gigni pariter cum corpore, et una 

 Crescere sentimus, pariterque senescere, mentem." Lucretius, lib. i. 



" In new-born children, it is difficult to discern, without maceration in spirits 

 of wine, any traces of fibres in the great collections of grey, reddish substances, 

 or the great cerebral ganglia, which supply, reinforce, and perfect, or which, ac- 

 cording to the opinion of others, give activity to, the hemispheres. The nervous 

 fibres are more visible in the middle and posterior lobes than in the anterior. 

 The fibrous structure of the white substance of the cerebellum also becomes 

 apparent gradually, and in proportion to its developement. All the nervous 

 fibres are at this period still so involved in the more or less reddish and gelatinous 

 substance, and in blood-vessels, that all the brain looks like a nervous pulp or 

 jelly. 



" The only functions of the infant, at this age, are very imperfect, and are those 

 of the five senses, of voluntary motion, hunger, the sensation of being comfortable 

 or uncomfortable, and the want of sleep. 



" After some months, the parts of the brain situated near the anterior-superior 

 region of the forehead, grow more rapidly than the other parts. The forehead, 

 from being flat, becomes prominent, and the child begins to fix its attention upon 

 external objects, to compare, and form abstract ideas, to generalise. 



<* The whole brain is developed in succession, until, at the age of from twenty 

 to forty, it has attained its full growth relatively to each individual. The cerebel- 

 lum, likewise, which is smaller than the cerebrum in proportion as the subject is 



D 2 



