ON TEMPERAMENTS, ^/^i^ 



tlistraction, 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 degeneracy 

 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 Xr. 



ON TIJMPERAMENTS, 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 bo- 

 som, and which impels him to prefer misery with fellowship, to ease and 

 indulgence without it — laid the first foundation for cities and states ; an<? 

 the nature of the social compact, peculiarity of chmate, and community 

 of habits and manners, unite in producing that general tissue of feelings 

 and propensities, which constitutes, and is denominated, national charac- 

 ter ; which gives vivacity to the French, a refined taste to the Italians, 

 j>hlegmatic 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 throug^h 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 

 changing 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, 

 admitting of infinite varities, 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 classifi- 

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

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

 syncrasies, 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 



