ÆäÀÌÁö À̹ÌÁö
PDF
ePub
[blocks in formation]

Three times a Week.

English Chronicle
General Evening Post
St. James's Chronicle;
with Baldwin's Journal
London Packet

Twice a Week.

Bell's Weekly Dispatch

6,441
2,760

160,500 2,675
150,000 2,500
577,500 9,625
102,000 1,700

132,250

2,204
8,711

875

600

373

[blocks in formation]

MAN being by nature to a certain extent a sociable animal, it may be needless to inquire, In what consists the chief pleasure which he derives from the society of his fellow mortals? And though it must certainly be allowed, that instinct is the first incitement to cultivate sociéty, conversation, or the pleasure arising from a familiar interchange of sentiments, ought not to be classed amongst the least of the 36,000 foundations of social intercourse. Al22,392 though it is true, that society at large 18,545 309 may be, at the bottom, considered but 30,070 501 a refinement of self-love, the gratified 22,500 375 141,975 self-love, arising from conversation, 2,366 88,150 1,469 is essentially different from the sordid 7,800 acceptation of that term: I mean that acceptation of it, in which it is understood as implying that propensity of mankind to herd together, and contribute each his part, to be laid up in store for the purpose of alleviating, or averting, the evils to which, in the course of providence, he may at some future time be exposed.

Bell's Weekly Messenger

522,700

British Luminary

52,500

British Neptune; with

British Freeholder, Bri

[blocks in formation]

468,002

John Bull's British Journal

2,000

London Gazette

160,000

[blocks in formation]

33

2,666

8,441 7,400 123 714,000 11,900

919 1,292

1,108

24,600 410

10,000 166
25,075

825

1,500

155,000

13

3,775

2,583

614
185

18

27

150 615

In conversation, as in every other 417 intellectual acquirement, there are 410 great differences amongst men; and so very great are these differences, that some have strenuously urged the 25 necessity of natural abilities being possessed by an individual who would 137,750 2,295 shine in this sphere of polite accomplishment; true it is, that to converse freely, and not hurt the feelings of the 1,003 present or absent,-to express opinions openly and not intrusively,-to occupy the attention of those amongst whom one is situated, and keep them listening to what is worthy of their remembrance; are attainments which few who have even had the advantages of nature and art, can boast of having acquired. Whether we are to consider garrulity as the sure evidence of a mind amply stored with erudition, is, perhaps, problematical: it may rather be regarded as evincing the forward superficiality of a mind that has been content with what appeared gay and fascinating, and has left the foundations and causes, as undeserving of their attention. It is a truth, that

Farmer's Journal

[merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][ocr errors][merged small]

1,041

50

406

500

6,000 100

16,254,534 270,908
8,525,252 142,087
24,779,786 412,996

many of our best authors, whose productions are deservedly admired, had little of this art; amongst whom was Addison, who, after having passed an evening with some literary characters, was, by one of them, Voltaire, rather invidiously compared to a moping country curate in a tie-wig.

Conversation, viewed as entertaining, rather than profound, would seem to have its peculiar charm in grace or ease, shewing not so much in originality, or deep researches, as in a graceful and not trite representation, of common objects and occurrences. In considering conversation, as a medium through which we disseminate our opinions or sentiments, it is, perhaps, more successful than any other means of conveying them; for it is more insinuating than writing. The reason is plain; what comes from the heart may be more simple, and unadorned, but not less fervid or impressive.

Although it is not always the case, yet by a familiar interchange of sentiments, and a beautiful representation of the truth, we may win others from erroneous views or wrong conclusions, and be successful in this good cause, not so much from exposing the incongruous sentiments of our neighbour, as by shewing the superiority of our own; for though truth be like nature, "when least adorned, adorned the most," yet the best cause may be so clumsily defended, as rather to excite ridicule than produce conviction.

To illustrate the truth of this assertion, I am acquainted with two gentlemen, the one is a wag of the first water, and can crack his joke with the finest grace imaginable, but when once he attempts calmly to converse, and relate any circumstance, his manner is so stiff, and unaccommodating, that you are prejudiced against the man, and his subject, before he has half finished. The other is a wit, but one of the satirical kind,-one who seldom creates a laugh, but at the expense of some individual's feelings or reputation;but how disagreeable soever his witticisms are, his conversation is pleasing and alluring, and he has too often the dexterity of making "the worse appear the better reason." Granting that what has been adduced, may be sufficient to prove, that conversation is not solely the attain

ment of great minds, or always the concomitant of those who can jest with readiness and suavity; let us now preceed to take a review of some characters, whose conversation admirably develops the ruling propensities of their hearts and actions.

There is a certain class of men whose loquaciousness is so irksome, who are so continually taken up with the detailing of trifles, that it is impossible any man of sense could remain for the shortest time in their company, without being irritated out of all humour; and notwithstanding the good terms on which these prattlers live with the belles, one cannot help feeling a hearty contempt for those who speak, and those who are entertained with such interminable insignificance. If means cannot be invented to get rid of these annoyances, let such be classed under the genus of drivellers, or talkers of nonsense, creatures from whom nothing can be learned; and yet, with candour be it spoken, there is an art in speaking about nothing at all.

My friend, Bill Trimble, is a politician, and his vain babblings are so pestiferous and loud, that one would think his continual remonstrances were enough to silence every opinion opposed to the sapient deductions of his vain self. Such is the hatred and spleen with which Peter, of the old school, descants upon the degeneracy of modern manners, and the wickedness of the present generation, that the credulous, or easy to be imposed upon, might doubt whether he had not past his youth in the latter part of "that Golden Age which poets write of."

In conclusion, let it be remembered that a wise man once said, much study was a weariness to the flesh; so, much speaking is generally not a friend to the reputation: for he that talks much, must speak either of himself or others; by doing the former, he only shews his own emptiness and vanity; and by practising the latter, it is odds but he will, in some unguarded moment, say something amiss, and thereby expose himself to the ill-will of some one: and thus go on, irritating one after another, "till he has raised a swarm of wasps about his ears, and is half stung to death for his pains." JUVENIS.

Aberdeen, 4th May, 1822.

REMARKS ON MENTAL AFFECTIONS.

MR. EDITOR.

SIR, My letter, written on the 6th of September, was not published till the 15th of Dec. 1821, (col. 1185;) the cause of which you have explained; and from the omissions of my bookseller, the Magazine in which it was published did not come to hand till the 11th of May. The subsequent numbers having come regularly; and finding no mention of my letter, I concluded that it had been rejected, and of course I had relinquished all idea of writing again upon the subject: a subject which I must presume will prove acceptable to a large proportion of your readers.

Spring Vale, May 13th.

T. BAKEWELL.

-That our involuntary thoughts, or ideas, are of three kinds; that is, ideas of sensation, ideas of recollection or reflection, and ideas of imagination or fancy;-that the thinking principle, or perceptive faculty, is constantly in action, so long as life remains, and when not engaged in ideas of sensation or ideas of recollection, it must be engaged in ideas of imagination, or what is sometimes called fancy, we having no power to suspend the action of the thinking principle for a single moment.-That insanity simply consists in a diseased excitement of the imagination, there being no defect in the senses, nor any defect in the powers of recollection, in those properly called insane, according to the general acceptation of the word. And, lastly, that the line to be drawn betwixt sanity and insanity is, when the imagination has a diseased excitement so strong, as to break out into words and actions that are inconsistent with, or in opposition to, the suggestions of pure

reason.

SOME six years ago, in consequence of a challenge, as I took it, from a highly respected Magistrate, to discuss publicly the merits of our large institutions for the insane, I wrote a number of letters for the Monthly Magazine, upon our national scheme of Asking a patient just brought into county asylums. These were followed the house, what was the matter with by one letter upon the nature of men- him? his answer was, "Why, Sir, the tal diseases, and I intended to go people say that I am mad, for I caninto the history and general treatment not, at times, help telling all that of insanity; and to speak of the cau- ever comes into my head:" now were ses, symptoms of its approach, and I to tell all that ever comes into my the means of prevention, and means head, the people would say that I was of cure ;--but I was prevented by cau- mad, and my readers may confess ses, which have since ceased to have the same; for the most perfect sanity any influence, and I shall feel happy does not consist in a freedom from to bestow a few leisure hours upon erroneous or visionary ideas, no huwhat I am convinced is of more impor-man Being being at all times in this tance than any other earthly concern; for great as is the blessing of bodily health, it bears no comparison with the value of mental health; and to me it will be both pleasing and easypleasing, from an idea of its being useful to my fellow-creatures, and easy, from its requiring only an abstract of previous communications, either verbal or written. I am persuaded too, that the subject, instead of being repulsive, as some suppose, may become highly interesting and attractive.

I beg to repeat what I said in my former letter, (viz.) That to understand the human mind, and the nature of what are called mental diseases, we must clearly distinguish betwixt the involuntary action of thought, and the free exercise of the reasoning powers.

state, but in the freedom of the reasoning powers, to suppress the words and actions these erroneous and visionary ideas would suggest.

Confirmed insanity generally acting only partially, that is, upon particular imaginations, and being intermittent, those who are the most incurable have lucid intervals, during which they can reason as well as they ever could; while the most sane are subject to feelings and passions, under the influence of which the reasoning powers are suspended, and which may be deemed a state of insanity.

I have known serious characters made unhappy by the intrusion of what they called sinful thoughts; but if no voluntary indulgence were given to these thoughts, and if they did not break out into words and actions, they

were not sinful, because involuntary. | REVIEW.-Sir Marmaduke Maxwell, a

Milton says:

"Evil into the mind of God or man May come and go so unapprov'd, And leave no spot behind."

It is, however, too much to presume, that evil can enter into the mind of a pure spiritual being; and an exemption from the intrusions of erroneous and disagreeable thoughts, can only be the privilege of those happy beings who are free from the corruptions of matter.-But being in the full possession of our reasoning powers, we can use the means of dissipating our intrusive ideas; and our being under the necessity of using the means, proves that we have no direct command over them, for if we had we could banish them by a single volition of the mind.

Since I sat down to write this letter, I was intruded upon by a train of thoughts, not at all agreeable; and I was under the necessity of walking out and diverting my ideas by a variety of impressions, before I could resume my subject; and in cases of absolute insanity, strong impressions upon the senses will suspend the action of the disease, and cause lucid intervals.

Shakspeare says:

"My brain I'll prove the female of my soul;
My soul the father; and these two beget
A generation of still breeding thoughts,
And these same thoughts people thy little

world."

Dramatic Poem; The Mermaid of
Galloway; The Legend of Richard
Faulder; and Twenty Scottish Songs.
By Allan Cunningham. London:
Taylor and Hessey, Fleet-street.
1822. pp. 210. 12mo.

Few persons, we presume, are aware
of the immense number of poetical
works constantly issuing from the
press, varying in their value and style
as much as in the subjects on which
they treat. One hour exhibits a poem
whose author is so great a favourite
with the public, that all he sends into
the world is seized with the greatest
avidity, and this partiality corrupts
the judgment, so that its defects are
not discovered:-the next may pro-
claim the production of a mind unac-
customed to the eye of the critic, and
generally unknown to the public:-
such a work must stand upon its own
merits, or fall by its lack of any thing
engaging or instructing. And certain
it is, that few, very few, who venture
into the lists of poetical competition,
ever attain to any eminence on the
hill of Parnassus.

The making of verses is now (and, we believe, long has been) a great source of amusement to those who have inclination or opportunity to turn from study or from business; and to such persons it affords an agreeable relaxation; this, added to the fund of materials daily afforded,-by incidents in life,-by the contemplation of the works of nature,-by the solemn and affecting dispensations of providence,

But a still higher authority says, "And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and man became a living soul," by which I understand, that a principle of life, and at the same time requiring a feeling, and sensation, or, in other greater degree of fancy or imaginawords, a thinking principle, began to tion, perhaps, rather than severe operate upon matter in the form of thought or diligent application,-all man, and continued to operate upon operate, in some measure, to throw it so long as that matter remained into this department of our litetenable, according to the eternal pur-rature, works of comparatively little pose; for we read in another place, "Thou_takest away our breath, we die." But it may be asked, if this thinking principle be a divine principle, how comes it to be disordered? In answer to this, I say, that it is not a thinking principle, as it regards man, till its union with matter, and that all its derangements are owing to the diseases incident to matter, and we all well know that the thinking principle in man is acted upon by physical causes.

(To be continued.) No. 41-VOL. IV.

value, and which, consequently, are scarcely out of the bookbinders' or booksellers' hands, before they are thrown away as worthless, and are either consumed in the covering of real Cheshire or good Dorsetshire, or else used to light our kitchen fires, or for other purposes of domestic economy.-How large a portion of the poetic fire of some of our native bards has thus kindled into smoke!

We, however, venture to assert, that the work now before us will retain a share in the memory of its read2 N

ers, while memory remains,-for the poetical beauties with which it abounds, for its correct copyings of nature, and for the lively and brilliant sparks of fancy and imagination which it contains.

The time of the story of the Drama is the close of the Commonwealth, under the Second Cromwell. Lord Maxwell has a presentiment of woes to fall upon Scotland, and makes the following patriotic speech. We believe we must commence with the Scene:

SCENE VI. Caerlaverock Hall.

LORD W. MAXWELL and LADY MAXWELL, Lady M.-Thou must not stand on earth like a carved saint Which men do bow to, but which ne'er returus

[blocks in formation]

Would hang her mansion for her golden young E'en in our woodland porch.

Lady M.-Thy country's woes

Have robb'd thee of thy peace,-have pluck'd thy spirit

Down from its heaven, and made sweet sleep to thee

The bitterest bliss of life.

Lord M.-Is there a bosom Full of a loyal heart?-Is there a knee That seeks the dust at eve?-a holy tongue, Whose orisons find heaven ?-a noble mind, Whose pure blood has flow'd down thro' the pare veins

Of a thousand noble bosoms?-a brave man Who loves his country's ancient name and law,

And the famed line of her anointed kings?
Oh heaven! give him swift wings: the sword,

the rack,

The halter, and whet axe, hold him in chase,
And make a den of Scotland, for the fiends
To howl and revel in.

[blocks in formation]

While one foundation-stone of palace, or church,

The rocking of artillery,-while one stream, Or shepherd's hovel, stands unmoved by Though curdling with warm life's blood, can frequent

Its natural track,-while thou hold'st holy dust Of princes, heroes, sages, though their graves Flood ankle-deep in gore; O, I will love thee, And weep for thee, and fight for thee, while heaven

Lends life, and thy worst foes are but of flesh, And can feel temper'd steel.

Surely this displays more than ordinary powers; and were we to give all the passages of equal or superior worth we noticed in perusing this volume, we should be compelled to omit the notice of any volume this month. Two or three short sentences, and we extract no more.

Mary Douglas to her Servant.
Thou know'st the tree;

Haste, haste: fly like a bird that leaves
No stamp of its wing upon the yielding air;
Its centre stem shoots as 'twould say, Ye
stars,

I'll stop when I'm among you.'

[blocks in formation]

6

[merged small][ocr errors][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][ocr errors][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small]
« ÀÌÀü°è¼Ó »