422 



ON TEMPERAMENTS, 



destruction — the demon train of distraction, madness, suicide : — these, and a 

 thousand miseries such as these, that naturally flow from, and are naturally- 

 dependent upon, a state of superabundant and diseased refinement, without 

 taking into the account the flagrant and atrocious villanies which fall within 

 the cognizance of the criminal judge, are sufficient to prove, that the nation 

 which has reached the utmost pitch of civil perfection is in danger of degene- 

 racy and decay; and justify the doubt I ventured to suggest, at the 

 opening of the present lecture, as to which of the two extremes of society 

 is pregnant with the greatest share of moral evils — that of gross barbarism, 

 or that of an exuberant and vitiated polish. 



LECTURE XI. 



ON TEMPERAMENTS, OR CONSTITUTIONAL PROPENSITIES. 



The social principle — that horror of solitude, and inextinguishable desire of 

 consorting with our own kind, which every man feels in his bosom, and which 

 impels him to prefer misery with fellowship, to ease and indulgence without 

 it — laid the first foundation for cities and states ; and the nature of the social 

 compact, peculiarity of climate, and community of habits and manners, unite 

 in producing that general tissue of feelings and propensities, which consti- 

 tutes, and is denominated, national character ; which gives vivacity to the 

 French, a refined taste to theltalians, phlegmatic industry to the Dutch, a free 

 and enterprising spirit to the English, and a military genius to the Germans. 



But, independently of these national tendencies that run through the 

 general mass of a people, it is impossible for us to open our eyes without 

 perceiving some peculiar propensity, or prominent moral feature, in every 

 individual of every nation whatever ; and which, if strictly analyzed, will be 

 found as much to distinguish him from all other individuals as the features 

 of his face. This is sometimes the effect of habit, or of education, which is 

 early and systematic habit, and which every one knows is capable of chang- 

 ing the original bent of the mind, and of introducing a new direction ; but it 

 is far more generally an indigenous growth, implanted by the hand of nature 

 herself ; or, in other words, dependent on the original organization, admit- 

 ting of infinite varieties, and produced by the ever-shifting proportions which 

 the mental faculties and the corporeal organs bear to themselves, or to each 

 other, and which it is impossible in every instance to catch hold of and 

 classify. 



The Greek physiologists, however, attempted the outlines of a classifica- 

 tion ; for they began by studying the individual varieties, which they 

 ascribed to the cause just adverted to, and hence denominated them idiosyn- 

 crasies, or peculiarities of constitution. 



They beheld, as every one must behold in the present day, for nature is 

 ever the same, one man so irascible, that you cannot accidentally tread on his 

 toe, or even touch his elbow, without putting him into a rage ; another so full 

 of wit and humour, that he would rather lose his friend than repress his joke ; 

 a third, on the contrary, so dull and heavy, that you might as well attempt to 

 move a mile-stone; and possessing, withal, so little imagination, that the de- 

 lirium of a fever would never raise him to the regions of a brilliant fancy. 

 They beheld one man for ever courting enterprise and danger; another dis- 

 tinguished for comprehensive judgment and sagacity of intellect ; one pecu- 

 liarly addicted to wine, a second to gallantry, and a third to both : one gene- 

 rous to profligacy ; another frugal to meanness ; and a few, amid the diversi- 

 fied crowd, with a mind so happily attempered and balanced by nature, that 

 education has little to correct, and is almost limited to the act of expanding 

 and strengthening the budding faculties as they show themselves. 



