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On The Influence Of The Seasons On The Mental Powers.
we know to be drawn from the actual effect of cold on the human body . Now , so intimate is the connection between body and mind , and so reciprocal the influence of each on the other , that it is impossible for either to be affected without occasioning some corresponding feeling in the other . When that genial warmth , which is essential to the vigorous exercise of our imagination ,- is abated b a - ttle influence of external the bodthe
causes operating on y , poet ' s eye no longer rolls in ' a fine phrenzy , ' the sallies of genius are no longer lively , the ' noble rage is repressed , ' the ' current of the soul is frozen . ' ( See Shakspeare and Gray ) . So truly , as-far as cessation of the poetic spirit is concerned , does Vida say , ? Interclum exhausts languent ad Carolinavires
, , Absumptusque vigor ; sriidioriunqne imrocmor est mens ; Torpescunt sensus , circura praccordia . sanguis Stat gelidus . VIDA Poet . 1 . ii . 414 . Is man then , it may be asked , a mere machine , actuated by external impressions of physical causes as variable and uncertain as changes of the air ? In that which constitutes his chief partthe
, moral sense , he is not a machine , so long as his reason continues undisturbed . For , whether that moral sense be the connate gift of Nature , or the acquired effect of education , its powers to distinguish between right and wrong , between good and evil , continue in full force ; its irresistible propensity to condemn or applaud human actions , is not in the least retarded , be the climate or atmosphere what it ma }' .
Hence the propriety of passages like these : Quid terras alio calenres Sois mutamus ? Patri ; c quis exul Se quoque fugit ? HOR . b . ii . od . 16 . And , ' Ccelurn , non animum , mutant , qui trans mare currunt . HOR . b . i . ep . 11 .
The mind , with its affections and passions , its hopes and fears , its good or evil tendencies , is the same under all pressures of ethereal elements , and follows the man through climes the most opposite . But the case is not the same with the creative'faculties of invention and imagination . The moral sense depends on the mind ' s internal operations on itself : Intus it vivata facultas
ag , Qua . sese explorat , contemplatusque repente Ipse suas animus vires , momentaque cerrtit . Quid velit , aut possit , cupiat , fugiatve , vicissim Percipit IMPERIO gaudens : neque corpora fallunt Morigera ad celeres afhis , nc nmnina mentis . GRAY ' Fragment of some vigorous Hexameters ' De Principis Cogitandi . The faculties of invention and imagination depend much on the
texture of the body , the finest organs and temperament of which are apparently affected by the external influence of air and atmosphere . Whence comes it that poets speak with so much rapture of returning Spring ? Whether they are writing from impressions made by gay
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
On The Influence Of The Seasons On The Mental Powers.
we know to be drawn from the actual effect of cold on the human body . Now , so intimate is the connection between body and mind , and so reciprocal the influence of each on the other , that it is impossible for either to be affected without occasioning some corresponding feeling in the other . When that genial warmth , which is essential to the vigorous exercise of our imagination ,- is abated b a - ttle influence of external the bodthe
causes operating on y , poet ' s eye no longer rolls in ' a fine phrenzy , ' the sallies of genius are no longer lively , the ' noble rage is repressed , ' the ' current of the soul is frozen . ' ( See Shakspeare and Gray ) . So truly , as-far as cessation of the poetic spirit is concerned , does Vida say , ? Interclum exhausts languent ad Carolinavires
, , Absumptusque vigor ; sriidioriunqne imrocmor est mens ; Torpescunt sensus , circura praccordia . sanguis Stat gelidus . VIDA Poet . 1 . ii . 414 . Is man then , it may be asked , a mere machine , actuated by external impressions of physical causes as variable and uncertain as changes of the air ? In that which constitutes his chief partthe
, moral sense , he is not a machine , so long as his reason continues undisturbed . For , whether that moral sense be the connate gift of Nature , or the acquired effect of education , its powers to distinguish between right and wrong , between good and evil , continue in full force ; its irresistible propensity to condemn or applaud human actions , is not in the least retarded , be the climate or atmosphere what it ma }' .
Hence the propriety of passages like these : Quid terras alio calenres Sois mutamus ? Patri ; c quis exul Se quoque fugit ? HOR . b . ii . od . 16 . And , ' Ccelurn , non animum , mutant , qui trans mare currunt . HOR . b . i . ep . 11 .
The mind , with its affections and passions , its hopes and fears , its good or evil tendencies , is the same under all pressures of ethereal elements , and follows the man through climes the most opposite . But the case is not the same with the creative'faculties of invention and imagination . The moral sense depends on the mind ' s internal operations on itself : Intus it vivata facultas
ag , Qua . sese explorat , contemplatusque repente Ipse suas animus vires , momentaque cerrtit . Quid velit , aut possit , cupiat , fugiatve , vicissim Percipit IMPERIO gaudens : neque corpora fallunt Morigera ad celeres afhis , nc nmnina mentis . GRAY ' Fragment of some vigorous Hexameters ' De Principis Cogitandi . The faculties of invention and imagination depend much on the
texture of the body , the finest organs and temperament of which are apparently affected by the external influence of air and atmosphere . Whence comes it that poets speak with so much rapture of returning Spring ? Whether they are writing from impressions made by gay