is in parts a little more distinctly and palpably brought out. The endeavour has been to disperse any mists that appeared to lie on the pages, that the ideas might present themselves in as defined a form as the writer could give to any of them which had seemed obscure, and ineffective to their object, from indeterminate or involved enunciation. In the revised diction, as in the original writing, he has designedly and constantly avoided certain artificial forms of phraseology, much in conventional use among even good writers; and aimed at falling on the words most immediately, naturally, and simply appropriate to the thoughts. If his book be of a quality to impart any useful instruction, he will hope that the benefit may be conveyed with perhaps a little more clearness and facility, in consequence of these last corrections it will receive from his hand. January, 1830. CONTENTS. Affectionate interest with which we revert to our past life....It deserves a All past life an education....Discipline and influence from...direct instruction ...companionship...books...scenes of nature...and the state of society. p. 10 Very powerful impressions sometimes from particular facts, tending to form discriminated characters.... Yet very few strongly discriminated and indi- vidual characters found....Most persons belong to general classes of cha- racter....Immense number and diversity of impressions, of indefinitely various tendency, which the moral being has undergone in the course of life.... Might be expected that such a confusion of influences would not permit the formation of any settled character.... That such a character is, nevertheless, acquired and maintained, is owing to some one leading determination, given by whatever means, to the mind, generally in early life.... Common self-deceptive belief that we have maintained moral recti- tude, and the exercise of sound reason, under the impressions that have Most of the influences under which the characters of men are forming un favourable to wisdom, virtue, and happiness.... Proof of this if a number of persons, suppose a hundred, were to give a clear account of the circum. stances that have most effected the state of their minds.... A few examples ...a misanthropist...a lazy prejudiced thinker...a man fancying himself a An Atheist....Slight sketch of the process by which a man in the humbler order of abilities and attainments may become one...........................p. 34 The influence of Religion counteracted by almost all other influences.... .......................... Self-knowledge being supposed the principa. object in writing the memoir, Examples of the distress and humiliation incident to an irresolute mind.... Such a mind cannot be said to belong to itself.... Manner in which a man of decisive spirit deliberates, and passes into action....Cæsar....Such a spirit prevents the fretting away, in harassing alternations of will, of the ani mated feelings required for sustaining the vigour of action....Averts im pertinent interference.... Acquires, if free from harshness of manner, an undisputed and beneficial ascendency over associates....Its last resource Brief inquiry into the constituents of this commanding quality....Physical Energy of feeling as necessary as confidence of opinion....Conduct that results from their combination....Effect and value of a ruling passion.... Great decision of character invests even wicked beings with something which we are tempted to admire....Satan....Zanga.... A Spanish assassin.... Remarkable example of this quality in a man who was a prodigal and became poor, but turned miser and became rich....Howard.... Whitefield.... Courage a chief constituent of the character.... Effect of this in encountering censure and ridicule.... Almagro, Pizarro, and De Luques.... Defiance of danger....Luther.... Daniel.... Another indispensable requisite to decision is the full agreement of all the powers of the mind....Lady Macbeth.... Richard III....Cromwell....A father who had the opportunity of saving one Formidable power of mischief which this high quality gives to bad men.... Circumstances tending to consolidate this Character....Opposition.... Desertion. ON THE APPLICATION OF THE EPITHET ROMANTIC. Great convenience of having a number of words that will answer the purposes of ridicule or reprobation without having any precise meaning.... Puritan. ...Methodist....Jacobin.... The word Romantic of the greatest service to persons, who, wanting to show their scorn, have not wherewithal in the way of sense or wit.... Whenever this epithet is applied, at the exact meaning be demanded.... Does it attribute, to what it is applied to, the kind of absurdity prevalent in the works called Romances?... That absurdity was from the predominance, in various modes, of imagination over judg- ment....Mental character of the early Romance writers....Opposite cha racter of Cervantes.... Delightful, delusive, and mischievous operation of a predominant imagination.... Yet desirable, for several reasons, that the imagination should have this ascendency in early life.....................p. 127 One of the modes of this ascendency justly called Romantic, is, the unfounded The epithet applicable to hopes and projects inconsistent with the known |