I 



/]yO TEMPERAMENTS, 



or turn of mind, by which we mean, that he is naturally irascible, or inclinet? 

 to anger ; that another man has a melancholic turn, by which every one 

 understands that he is naturally gloomy and low-spirited ; that a third is of 

 a sanguine disposition, importing that he is naturally prone t6 high hope 

 and confidence ; and that a fourth is of a phlegmatic habit, signifying that 

 lie is naturally dull and sluggish. 



Now, in thus expressing ourselves, we show that we have imbibed, 

 though often without being aware of it, not merely the language, biit the 

 first principles of the Hippocratic school, and employ their own terms as 

 illustrative of their own doctrine. Choler (;tjoAjj), for example^ is Greek 

 for bile ; and the bilious temperament of the Greeks was peculiarly charac- 

 terized by irascibihty, or an habitual propensity to anger. So melancholy 

 {(jLiXoLyy^oXiat) is literal Greek for black bile ; that which, as I have already 

 observed, they supposed to be produced by the spleen ; and to the melan- 

 cholic, or, as the Latins called it, atrabilious or black bile temperament, 

 they, in like manner, ascribed a prevailing disposition to gloom or depression 

 of spirits. Sanguine is a Latin term, importing blood ; and to the san- 

 guineous temperament, or that which, on their hypothesis, indicates a brisk 

 and exuberant flow of blood, they attributed a propensity to ardent expec- 

 tation, mirth, gayety. Phlegmatic (4)A£y;icfl6r<»a5), again, is a Greek term, 

 denoting lymph or aqueous fluid ; and to the temperament abounding with 

 this cold and spiritless humour, as they conceived it to be, they referred 

 habitual indolence or sloth. 



We often hear of the term Ruling Passion : this is rather of modern 

 than of ancient origin. It is frequently, however, employed without any 

 clear meaning, and confounded with temper, humour, or idiosyncrasy. 

 Now, the temper, or idiosyncrasy, may be the result of a combination of 

 passions, in which case all of them cannot take the rule ; and hence that 

 only is, properly speaking, the ruling passion, which takes the lead of the 

 rest, and gives to the particular temper or humour a particular variety. 

 Pope has not always paid suflicient attention to this distinction. Ros- 

 common has correctly maintained it in the following couplet : 



Examine how your humour is inclined, 



And which the ruling passion of your mind. 



If this view of the subject be correct, it will follow that erases or tem- 

 peraments are the genera or grand divisions under which the moral cha- 

 racters or dispositions of mankind, possessing any considerable degree of 

 resemblance to each other, may be naturally arranged. Tempers, humours, 

 or idiosyncrasies, are the species which compose the diflTerent genera and 

 ruling passions, the varieties or singularities of emotion, by which one 

 individual belonging to the same species is distinguished from another. 



The species and varieties may be innumerable, and would require a folio 

 ''.'olume for their separate analysis and description, rather than a single 

 lecture. Let us, then, confine our attention to the genera, or primary 

 division of moral and physical constitutions into temperaments, and illus- 

 trate this part of the preceding classification by a few familiar examples. 



All mental propensities or dispositions, then, may be arranged under 

 five separate heads ; each of which constitutes a temperament, and is dis- 

 tinguishable by a correspondent effect, produced on the corporeal organs, 

 and the external features and figure. So that the mind and body, for the 

 most part, maintain a mutual harmony, and the powers of the one become. 



m 



