are much more remarkable than what it produces on men of education." The occasional fits of religious enthusiasm, therefore, to which some mathematicians have been liable, so far from indicating the general predominance of imagination in their intellectual character, are the natural effects of the torpid state in which that faculty is suffered to remain in the course of their habitual studies, and of the uncontrollable ascendant it seldom fails, when strongly excited, to usurp over all the other powers of the understanding, in minds not sufficiently familiarized to its visions and illusions. Mr. Gray, who appears, from various passages in his works, to have studied the phenomena of the Human Mind much more attentively and successfully than most poets, has, in a passage formerly quoted, struck into a train of thinking, coinciding nearly with the above; and is the only writer in whom I have met with any observations at all approaching to it. "The province of eloquence," he remarks, "is to reign over minds of slow perception and little imagination; to set things in lights they never saw them in; to engage their attention by details of circumstances gradually unfolded; to adorn and heighten them with images and colours unknown to them; and to raise and engage their rude passions to the point to which the speaker wishes to bring them."1 It is observed by D'Alembert, in his Elements of Philosophy, (a work abounding with the most profound and original views,) among other remarks on what he calls the Esprit Géomètre, That it is not always united with the Esprit Métaphysique. To this observation (which, by the way, corroborates strongly a remark formerly quoted from Descartes [p. 202]) D'Alembert adds, as a still more curious circumstance, that a genius for mathematics, and a turn for games of skill, however nearly they may at first view seem to be allied to each other, are by no means always to be found in the same individual; and that there is even less affinity or analogy between them than is commonly imagined. The subject may appear to some of very trifling moment; but as 1 Gray's Letters, p. 349. [See also above, Elem. vol. i. p. 457.-Ed.) 1 D'Alembert has not thought it unworthy of his notice, and as it has led him to an argument which may be extended to some other pursuits of greater importance than those of the gamester, I shall quote it at length. "A mathematical head," says he, undoubtedly implies a propensity to calculate and to combine; but to combine scrupulously and slowly; examining, one after another, all the parts and aspects of an object, so as to omit no element which ought to enter into the computation; and never venturing upon a new step, till the last has been well secured. A turn for play, on the other hand, is founded on a power of rapid combination, which embraces at a glance, though vaguely, and sometimes incorrectly, a great number of circumstances and conditions, guided more by a certain natural quickness improved by habit, than by a scientific application of general principles. The mathematician, besides, may command as much time as he pleases, for resolving his problems; repose himself after an effort of study, and begin again with renewed vigour; while the player is obliged to resolve his problems on the spur of the occasion, and to bring all his resources to bear on a single instant. It is not, therefore, surprising that a great mathematician should, at a card-table, often sink to the level of mediocrity." " The fact taken notice of in the foregoing passage, is confirmed by my own observations, as far as they have extended. Of the various mathematicians whom I have happened to be acquainted with, (some of them, certainly, of the first eminence,) I cannot recollect one who was at all distinguished as a player at whist. Many of them, at the same time, were fond of the game, and devoted to it regularly a portion of their leisure hours. But all of them, without exception, were mere 1 L'esprit Géomètre.-I have substituted the word Mathematician for Geometer; the last of these expressions being always used in our language in that limited sense in which it was employed in the schools of Ancient Greece. In the best French writers, the title of Geometer is very generally given to mere algebraists; and it is plainly in this extensive acceptation that it is employed by D'Alembert in the present instance. * [Elémens de Philosophie, sect. xv.; Mélanges, edit. Amst. 1763, tom. iv. p. 180.-Ed.] novices when compared, not only with professional gamesters, but with such men and women as may be selected to form a card-party from any large promiscuous assembly. The only point in D'Alembert's statement, about which I entertain any doubts, relates to the degree of intellectual exertion which he supposes to be implied in the skill of our common card-players. To myself, I must own, the whole seems to resolve into a ready application of established rules, caught from imitation and practice; while, on the other hand, I am disposed to ascribe the failure of the mathematician to his misplaced confidence in the exercise of his own extemporaneous judgment, in cases where he ought to be guided solely by the approved results of more deliberate calculations. Something of the same sort may be remarked with respect to every other employment of our faculties in which promptitude of decision is indispensably necessary. Wherever this is the case, a ready application of rules, sanctioned by previous reflection, or by general experience, is far more likely to insure success, than those hasty and dubious conclusions which are formed under the pressure of present exigencies. Nor are these the only occasions on which an unseasonable exercise of reasoning and invention is attended with inconvenience. The same effects may be expected wherever the superiority of one man above another, depends upon a quickness and facility derived from habitual practice. Whence is it that the mathematician is commonly surpassed in point of rapidity, as an arithmetical calculator, by the illiterate accountant, but because his intellectual activity is adverse to the passive acquisition of a mechanical dexterity? It is owing to a similar cause, that a facility in acquiring languages is seldom combined (at least after years of maturity) with the higher gifts of the mind. The extraordinary promptitude of children in this and other respects, is no doubt owing principally to the susceptibility and retentiveness of memory at that tender age; but a great deal also is, in my opinion, to be ascribed to the weakness of their reasoning powers, and to their complete want of reflection. And hence the importance of communicating to them all those accomplishments which are really useful, before the nobler faculties of the understanding begin to open to the more interesting objects of intellectual curiosity. SECTION IV.—THE POET. In entering on this subject it is proper to observe, that the word Poet is not here used in that restricted sense in which it is commonly employed, but in its original acceptation of Maker or Creator. In plainer language, it is used to comprehend all those who devote themselves to the culture of the arts which are addressed to the imagination; and in whose minds, it may be presumed, imagination has acquired a more than ordinary sway over the other powers of the understanding. By using the word with such a latitude, we shall be enabled to generalize those observations which might otherwise seem applicable merely to the different classes of versifiers.1 As the chief delight of the poet consists in the exercise of his imagination, he can scarcely fail to acquire an intellectual character, very different from what distinguishes those who cultivate the abstract sciences. These last withdraw a man's thoughts from the world, and turn them to the necessary relations of his general ideas, or to the solitary operations of his own understanding. The culture of imagination does not diminish our interest in human life, but is extremely apt to inspire the mind with false conceptions of it. As this faculty derives its chief gratification from picturing to itself things more perfect than what exist, it has a tendency to exalt our expectations above the level of our present condition; and frequently produces a youth of enthusiastic hope, while it stores up disappointment and disgust for our maturer years. In general, For this latitude in the use of the word Poet, I may plead the example of Bacon and D'Alembert, the former of whom, (De Aug. Scient. lib. ii. cap. 1,) comprehends under poetry all fables or fictitious histories, whether in prose or in verse; while the latter includes in it painting, sculpture, architecture, music, and their different divisions.-See the Preliminary Discourse prefixed to the Encyclopédie.-[Mélanges, tom. i. p. 238, edit. Amst. 1763.] it is the characteristic of a poetical mind to be sanguine in its prospects of futurity, a disposition certainly extremely useful when seconded by great activity and industry, but which, when accompanied (as it is too frequently) with indolence, and with an over-weening self-conceit, is the source of numberless misfortunes. A thoughtlessness and improvidence with respect to the future, and a general imprudence in the conduct of life, has been often laid to the charge of poets. Horace represents them as too much engrossed and intoxicated with their favourite pursuits to think of anything else: "Vatis avarus Non temere est animus, versus amat, hoc studet unum; This carelessness about the goods of fortune, is an infirmity very naturally resulting from their studies, and is only to be cured by years and experience; or by a combination (very rare indeed) of poetical genius, with a more than ordinary share of that homely endowment called common sense. Akenside has very beautifully touched upon the history of his own mind in these respects: "The figured brass, the choral song, Fixed by the counsels of Timoleon's tongue, To such romantic thoughts have bid a long adieu." A few exceptions to these observations may undoubtedly be mentioned, but they are so very few, as by their singularity to confirm rather than weaken the general fact. In proof of this, we need only appeal to the sad details recorded by Dr. Johnson in his Lives of the Poets. It is difficult to guess who the French poets were among Boileau's contemporaries, to whom he alluded in the following admirable verses : 1 Epistle to Augustus, [Epist. II. i. 119.] 2 Ode to Sleep. See Note B. |