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king on an extraordinary appearance of regularity and art, to fhow the bufy hand of man, which in a waste country has a fine effect by contraft.

It may be gathered from what is faid above*, that wit and ridicule make not an agreeable mixture with grandeur. Diffimilar emotions have a fine effect in a flow fucceffion; but in a rapid fucceffion, which approaches to coexiftence, they will not be relifhed in the midst of a laboured and elevated defcription of a battle, Virgil introduces a ludicrous image, which is certainly out of its place:

Obvius ambuftum torrem Chorinæus ab ara
Corripit, et venienti Ebufo plagamque ferenti
Occupat os flammis: illi ingens barba reluxit,
Nidoremque ambusta dedit.

Æn. XII. 298.

The following image is no lefs ludicrous, nor lefs improperly placed :

Mentre fan quefti i bellici ftromenti
Perche debbiano tofto in ufo porse,
Il gran nemico de l'humane genti
Contra i Chriftiani i lividi occhi torfe :
E lor veggendo à le bell' opre intenti,
Ambo le labra per furor fi morse :

Chap. 2. Part 4.

E

E qual tauro ferito, il fuo dolore

Verfo mugghiando e sospirando fuore.

Gerufal. cant. 4. st. 1.

It would, however, be too auftere to banish altogether ludicrous images from an epic poem. This poem doth not always foar above the clouds it admits great variety; and upon occafion can defcend even to the ground without finking. In its more familiar tones, a ludicrous scene may be introduced without impropriety. This is done by Virgil in a foot-race; the circumstances of which, not excepting the ludicrous part, are copied from Homer t. After a fit of merriment, we are, it is true, the lefs difpofed to the serious and fublime: but then, a ludicrous fcene, by unbending the mind from fevere application to more interefting fubjects, may prevent fatigue, and preferve our relish entire.

CHAP.

• Æn. lib. 5.

+ Iliad, book 23. 1. 879.

CHAP. IX.

UNIFORMITY AND VARIETY.

N attempting to explain uniformity and va

IN

riety, in order to fhow how we are affected by these circumftances, a doubt occurs, what method ought to be followed. In adhering clofe to the fubject, I forefee difficulties; and yet by indulging fuch a circuit as may be neceffary for a fatisfactory view, I probably fhall incur the censure of wandering.-Yet the dread of cenfure ought not to prevail over what is proper: befide that the intended circuit will lead to fome collateral matters, that are not only curious, but of confiderable importance in the fcience of human nature.

The neceffary fucceffion of perceptions may be examined in two different views; one with refpect to order and connection, and one with respect to uniformity and variety. In the first view it is handled above*: and I now proceed to the fecond. The world we inhabit is replete with things no lefs remarkable for their variety than for their number: thefe, unfolded by the wonderful mechanifm of external fenfe, furnish VOL I.

* Chap. I.

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the mind with many perceptions; which, joined with ideas of memory, of imagination, and of reflection, form a complete train that has not a gap or interval. This train of perceptions and ideas depends very little on will. The mind, as has been obferved, is fo conftituted, "That "it can by no effort break off the fucceffion of "its ideas, nor keep its attention long fixed upon the fame object:" we can arreft a perception in its courfe; we can fhorten its natural duration, to make room for another; we can vary the fucceffion, by change of place or of amufement; and we can in some measure prevent variety, by frequently recalling the fame. object after fhort intervals: but ftill there must be a fucceffion, and a change from one perception to another. By artificial means, the fucceffion may be retarded or accelerated, may be rendered more various or more uniform, but in one shape or another is unavoidable.

The train, even when left to its ordinary courfe, is not always uniform in its motion ; there are natural caufes that accelerate or retard it confiderably. The firft I fhall mention, is a peculiar conftitution of mind. One man is diftinguished from another, by no circumftance more remarkably, than his train of perceptions: to a cold languid temper belongs a flow courfe of perceptions, which occafions

Locke, book 2. chap. 14.

occafions dulnefs of apprehenfion and fluggifhnefs in action: to a warm temper, on the contrary, belongs a quick courfe of perceptions, which occafions quicknefs of apprehenfion and activity in bufinefs. The Afiatic nations, the Chinese especially, are observed to be more cool and deliberate than the Europeans: may not the reafon be, that heat enervates by exhaufting the spirits? and that a certain degree of cold, as in the middle regions of Europe, bracing the fibres, roufeth the mind, and produceth a brifk circulation of thought, accompanied with vigour in action? In youth is obfervable a quicker fucceffion of perceptions than in old age and hence, in youth, a remarkable avidity for variety of amusements, which in riper years give place to more uniform and more fedate occupation. This qualifies men of middle age for business, where activity is required, but with a greater proportion of uniformity than variety. In old age, a flow and languid fucceffion makes variety unneceffary; and for that reason, the aged, in all their motions, are generally governed by an habitual uniformity. Whatever be the caufe, we may venture to pronounce, that heat in the imagination and temper, is always connected with a brifk flow of perceptions.

The natural rate of fucceffion, depends alfo, in fome degree, upon the particular perceptions that compose the train. An agreeable object,

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