which the somewhat morbid sensitiveness of her taste regarded all common and proverbial expressions, no description can convey so perfect an idea as an anecdote told with singular liveliness by herself. "Un Président m'est venu voir, avec qui j'ai une affaire que je vais essayer de finir, pour avancer mon retour autant que je le puis. Ce Président avoit avec lui un fils de sa femme, qui a vingt ans, et que je trouvai, sans exception, de la plus agréable et de la plus jolie figure que j'aie jamais vue. J'allais dire que je l'avois vu à cinq ou six ans, et que j'admirais, comme M. de Montbason, qu'on pût croître en si peu de tems. Sur cela il sort une voix terrible de ce joli visage, qui nous plante au nez, d'un air ridicule, que mauvaise herbe croit toujours; voilà qui fut fait, je lui trouvai des cornes. S'il m'eût donné un coup de massue sur la tête, il ne m'auroit pas plus affligée. Je jurai de ne me plus fier aux physionomies."* The foregoing passage, with which it is impossible not to be amused, in a letter from a lady bred at the Court of Louis XIV., would in this country have appeared too extravagant for the pen even of Horace Walpole. The characteristical taste of Madame de Sévigné (exquisite undoubtedly of its own kind) was chiefly that sort of conventional taste on which I have, on other occasions, offered various remarks.1 It is that sort of taste, founded on a facility of association, which the other sex seem to me to have a peculiar aptitude to acquire; and which, if I am not deceived, is exemplified still more strongly in French than in English ladies. From this, too, may be traced, as I have elsewhere observed, some of the most remarkable features, both of their intellectual and moral character. I have mentioned particularly the facility with which they contract and lose habits, and accommodate their minds to new situations; to which I have added their proneness to that species of superstition, which is founded on accidental combinations of circumstances. I might also have * [Letires.] 2 Philosophical Essays, pp. 490, 491. 1 Elements, vol. i. pp. 325, seq. 2 Elements, vol. i. pp. 265, seq.. added the ease and the perfection with which they acquire foreign languages by the ear. I recollect to have heard a French gentleman (a person eminently skilled in his own language) remark, that he had never met with an Englishman who spoke French with more purity and correctness than the late Mr. Fox; but that he knew several English ladies who spoke it better. In consequence of these distinguishing peculiarities of the female mind, we may remark, that women in general possess a greater docility or aptitude to learn than men; a docility much aided by that easy faith in the infallibility of their instructors, which they are led to repose by the deference they are early taught to pay to superior knowledge, and which, it must be owned, too often serves to mislead their confidence. To this easy faith, however, they are not a little indebted for that apparent quickness, by which they are so much distinguished, not only in acquiring languages, but all the common branches of education. SECTION VI. CONCLUSION OF CHAPTER FIRST. Speculations similar to those which have formed the chief subjects of this chapter, might be extended to all the different pursuits of Man both scientific and active; but enough has already been said to convey a general idea of my views with respect to this branch of the Philosophy of the Human Mind, and of some of the particular purposes to which I conceive it to be subservient. Among these, the first place is due to its obvious tendency (by guarding the student against confined scientific and literary pursuits) to correct those biases and erroneous habits of thinking that Bacon classes under the title of Idola specus.1 They may also be useful in pointing out the proper remedies to have recourse to, against the various intellectual defects and disorders, whether natural or acquired, to which the human mind is liable. "There is no stand or 1 See Bacon's Works, De Augment. Scientiar. lib. v. cap. iv. impediment," says Bacon, "in the wit, but may be wrought out by fit studies, like as diseases of the body may have appropriated exercises: bowling is good for the stone and reins; shooting for the lungs and breast; gentle walking for the stomach; riding for the head, and the like; so if a man's wit be wandering, let him study the mathematics, for in demonstrations, if his wit be called away never so little, he must begin again; if his wit be not apt to distinguish or find differences, let him study the schoolmen; if he be not apt to beat over matters, and to call upon one thing to prove and illustrate another, let him study the lawyer's cases: so every defect of the mind may have a special receipt." "1 In the first volume of these Elements, I have touched on a subject nearly connected with the same speculations. "In whatever way," I have observed, "we choose to account for it, whether by original organization, or by the operation of moral causes in very early infancy, no fact can be more undeniable than that there are important differences discernible in the minds of children, previous to that period at which, in general, their intellectual education commences. There is, too, a certain hereditary character (whether resulting from physical constitution, or caught from imitation and the influence of situation) which appears remarkably in particular families. One race, for a succession of generations, is distinguished by a genius for the abstract sciences, while it is deficient in vivacity, in imagination, and in taste: another is no less distinguished for wit, and gaiety, and fancy; while it appears incapable of patient attention, or of profound research. The system of education, which is proper to be adopted in particular cases, ought, undoubtedly, to have some reference to these circumstances; and to be calculated, as much as possible, to develop and to cherish those intellectual and active principles, in which a natural deficiency is most to be apprehended. Montesquieu, and other speculative politicians, have insisted much on the reference which education and laws should have to climate. I shall not take upon me to say, how far their 'Bacon's Essays; Of Studies. conclusions on this subject are just; but I am fully persuaded that there is a foundation in philosophy and good sense for accommodating, at a very early period of life, the education of individuals to those particular turns of mind, to which, from hereditary propensities, or from moral situation, they may be presumed to have a natural tendency." To these observations, I think it of importance to add, that in those parts of Europe where persons of high rank are accustomed to intermarry exclusively with their own order, the hereditary peculiarities or points (if I may be allowed the expression) of families may be expected to display themselves much more remarkably than in other countries. Something analogous to what is practised in some parts of England, for improving the breeds of the lower animals, there takes place in the human species; and the consequences are strikingly similar. Certain peculiarities both of body and of mind, become characteristical of particular families, and are apt to be associated, in the fancy of the multitude, with ideas of nobility and of ancient race; but in proportion as these peculiarities are prominent, it is invariably found, that the man degenerates from the perfection of his intellectual and moral, as well as of his physical nature. The superiority of character which raises the English nobility so far above the level of their Continental neighbours, is certainly owing to the frequent alliances among different ranks and castes of the people. Of the result in this instance, the greater part is probably to be ascribed to moral causes, to the crossing, if I may say so, of different accomplishments and of different prejudices; but who will assert the probability that the human race is altogether exempted from those physical laws to which other animals are subjected in so remarkable a degree? Among the Cretins of Chamouny, it has been remarked, by a very intelligent and accurate observer, that, notwithstanding the low state of their intellectual powers in general, instances often occur of individuals distinguished by some extraordinary 1 [Elements, &c. vol. i. p. 62.] 2 See Mr. Marshall's Rural Eco nomy of the Midland Counties. Lond. 1790. gifts of nature, such as a strong and almost preternatural turn for mechanism, for music, for drawing, and the other imitative arts. This remark is so agreeable to the analogy of my own. experience, so far as it has reached, that I have long been disposed to consider any violent and exclusive bias of this sort, when manifested in very early life, as a most unfavourable omen of the future vigour and comprehension of the understanding. While, however, we are at pains to guard against the effects of circumscribed scientific and literary pursuits, we ought to be careful not to run into the opposite error. This caution I conceive to be particularly necessary in the present times, in which there is a manifest bias in the rising generation to consider knowledge rather in the light of an accomplishment, subservient to conversation, than of a solid acquisition, convertible to purposes of real and permanent utility. On this subject, I borrow from the Edinburgh Review a lively description of the accomplishments supposed "now-a-days to be essential to enable a man to pass current in the informed circles of society;" a description which, I am afraid, is but too faithful a picture of the present state of our manners. "In the informed circles of society, a man can scarcely pass current without knowing something of political economy, chemistry, mineralogy, geology, and etymology, having a small notion of painting, sculpture, and architecture,-with some sort of taste for the picturesque, and a smattering of German and Spanish literature, and even some idea of Indian, Sanscrit, and Chinese learning and history,-over and above some little knowledge of trade and agriculture,-with a reasonable acquaintance with what is called the philosophy of politics, and a far more extensive knowledge of existing parties, factions, and eminent individuals, both literary and political, at home and abroad, than ever were required in an earlier period of society."2 1 Traité du Goître et du Crétinisme, par F. E. Foderé, Ancien Médecin des Hospitaux Civiles et Militaires. A Paris, an VIII. 2 168. Edinburgh Review, vol. xvii. p. [Jeffrey's Review of the Philosophical Essays. - Ed.] |