Page images
PDF
EPUB

SECT. XCVII.

A DISPUTE.

When doctors difagree who can decide?

IN confidering the laws of the fibrous system, we contemplated several INDIRECT STIMULI, as Cold, Darkness, Sleep, Impure Air, Reft, Hunger, and laftly the different Afphyxias; and tracing their effects on the animated body, we were enabled from these to establish a General Law; but whether they had any direct operation of their own, or only predifpofed (by not confuming irritability) the fibre to greater action when the direct ftimuli should be applied, as Heat, Light, Pure Air, Exercise, Food, &c. was not determined * ; fo of INDIRECT NERVOUS STIMULI a difpute ftill remains unsettled, whether these are only negative states, the abstraction of fome powerful exciting emotion? or whether they have a direct diftinct power of their own?

GIRTANNER, and BROWN, fay the paffions differ from each another only in ftimulating the irritable fibre

* We however inclined to this last opinion.

more

more or less. Anger and joy are very powerful degrees of the nervous stimulus; content and hope are lower degrees; fear, despair, and forrow, are not abfolute degrees of this ftimulus, they are only the abstraction of the ftimuli of hope, content, and happiness. Anger and joy act as very powerful stimuli, and exhaust the irritability of the fibre in the fame manner as any other ftimulus whatever. Content and hope are degrees of the nervous stimulus neceffary to preserve the tone of the fibre. Sorrow and despair are degrees too weak.

In a discourse on taste, written by Dr. USHER, we find nearly the same sentiment. The fyftem I mean to propose, fays this elegant writer, is that of a friend of mine, who was a true lover of knowledge. He found little fatisfaction in the philofophy of colleges and schools, particularly in those enquiries he thought of most importance: he had withdrawn himself from the trifling buftle of the little world, to converfe with his own heart, and end a stormy life in obfcure quiet. One day, after dinner, we walked out to indulge on our favourite topic. Our excurfion terminated at a rock, whose base is washed by the western ocean. It was one of those fine days in Auguft, when the cool of the evening brought on a refreshing sweetness. We fat down to

[ocr errors]

reft and enjoy the prospect of the sea, that stretched before us beyond the limits of the eye. The fun was just setting, and his laft foftened beams flying to the fhore, seemed to dip in a thousand waves, and leave in the waters the blaze they loft. Being feated, our conversation turned on the fublime. It is easy, fays this thoughtful philofopher, to describe the impreffions the fublime make on the mind, and this is all the writers on this fubject have hitherto done; but is it impoffible, from a due attention to the symptoms, to unravel its meaning, and discover the fpring of the filent aftonishment it impreffes on the fpirit of man? In order to proceed to the discovery we defire to make, let us turn our views to objects remarkably fublime, and from them obtain what intelligence we can. Obferve this mountain that rifes fo high on the left, if we had been further removed from it, you might fee behind it other mountains rifing in ftrange confufion, the furtheft off almost, loft in the distance, yet great in the obfcurity; your imagination labours to travel over them, and the inhabitants seem to refide in a superior world. But here you have a different profpect, the next mountain covers all the reft from your view; and by its nearer approach, prefents diftinctly to your eye objects of new admira

1

tion. The rocks on this fide meet the clouds in vaft irregularity; the penfive eye traces the rugged precipice down to the bottom, and furveys there the mighty ruins that time has mouldered and tumbled below. It is easy, in this inftance, to difcover that we are terrified and filenced into awe, at the marks we fee of immenfe power; and the more manifeft are the appearances of diforder, and the neglect of contrivance, the more plainly we feel the boundlefs might these rude monuments are owing to. The same sensation arifes when' we behold an ocean disturbed and agitated in ftorms; or a forest roaring, and bending under the tempeft. We are ftruck by it with more calmnefs, but equal grandeur, in the ftarry heavens: the filence, the unmeasured distance, and the unknown power united in that profpect, render it very awful in the deepest ferenity. Thunder, with broken bursts of lightning through black clouds; the view of a cataract, whose billows fling themselves down with eternal rage; or the unceafing found of the falling waters of night; all these produce the effect of the fublime, and are affociated with the fenfation of immenfe power. This religious paffion has none of the tumult of other paffions, its object is incomprehenfible, it is unknown; therefore the paffion

is in itself obfcure, and wants a name. Curiofity and hope carry with them the plainest symptoms of a paffion that wanders and is aftray from its object. In their anxious fearch, they unite themfelves with every great profpect of life, whofe completion lies in the dark: but when we arrive at the point we proposed, we are fully fenfible that curiofity and hope have been deceived, the enjoyment of our power, whatever it be, falls infinitely below our expectations, yet the alacrity of the mind feels no decay by disappointment; we fet out immediately with renewed vigour in pursuit of something further, and nothing but death puts an end to these active energies of the foul. Such paffions as these are scared away by the majesty of darkness and of filence, by the diforder and confufion of feas in ftorms, or when lofty woods ftruggle with high winds, and we are struck with humiliating awe and fufpenfe. We fecretly cry,

"What is man that thou art mindful of him, and the "son of man that thou shouldest regard him.” I appeal to the feelings of every perfon, if his paffion, under these circumstances, be not exactly applicable to this ftate of the mind, when confidence almoft vanishes, and defpair fucceeds. All mankind agree, that darkness, folitude, and filence, naturally oppress the mind by a tre

VOL. IV.

5 U

mendous

« PreviousContinue »