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On The Influence Of The Seasons On The Mental Powers.
objects , visible at the instant , or from the recollection of what they have repeatedly experienced , their language intimates that Winter ' s benumbing chilness is less favourable to imagination , than the vivifying warmth diffused through every part of nature in the vernal months ; and we should condemn as frigid any description of Spring , which did not indicate a renovation of animal spiritsa resuscitation
, ef the ignea vis in the writer : . In these green days Reviving Sickness lifts Tier languid head ; Life flows afresh ; and young eyed Health exalts The whole creation round . Contentment walks The sunny glade , and feels an inward bliss Spring o'er his mind , beyond the power of kings
To purchase . Pure seienity apace Induces thought , and contemplation still . By swift degrees the love of Nature works , And warms ' the bosom ; till at last suMim'd To rapture , and enthusiastic heat , We feel the present Deity , and taste The joy of God to see a happy world . THOMSON ' S Siring , 8 S 8 .
The real sensations excited bj : Nature in the various changes of ' theyear , are by no poet whatever more attentively observed , or more forcibly painted , than by Thomson . In the history of the Fine Arts it is a fact not to be controverted , that the temperate climates have been most productive of poets . With all the mutability of weather which we experience , we are , neverfhe- - lessin a situation peculiarly happy for the fostering of genius .
Wit-, ness not only the works of those who were either prior to the time included by Dr . Johnson , or who were criticised by him , but also the writings of such as are still living , or not long since dead . ' If , however , we ascend to higher latitudes , we shall find the inhabitants of those quarters better calculated for the chace or war , than for poetic composition . The severe coldnesswhich strings their nervesis
, , too intense for the cherishing of that temperament which is requisite for a poetic spirit . It is true , indeed , Bartholinus , Scheffer , and Olaus Wormius , give us specimens of Lapponian and Runic poetry . The assertion , that climate influences imagination , is not , therefore , to be so understood as admitting of no exception . There is a Hecla in Iceland ; and it may occasianally happen that ,
In climes beyond , the solar road , Where shaggy forms o ' er ice-built mountains roam , The Muse has broke the twilight-gloom To cheer the shivering native ' s dull abode .
GREY ' S Trogr . of Poet . 2 . 2 . jStill , however , the general characteristic of nations l ying in regions far northern , is rather a capacity for bodily exertion , than a promptitude in works of imagination . And from this effect , of continued coldness on nations at large , it may fairly be concluded , that , in climes more temperate , tiie vigour of imagination may be . checked in individuals , by an occasional severity of weather .
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
On The Influence Of The Seasons On The Mental Powers.
objects , visible at the instant , or from the recollection of what they have repeatedly experienced , their language intimates that Winter ' s benumbing chilness is less favourable to imagination , than the vivifying warmth diffused through every part of nature in the vernal months ; and we should condemn as frigid any description of Spring , which did not indicate a renovation of animal spiritsa resuscitation
, ef the ignea vis in the writer : . In these green days Reviving Sickness lifts Tier languid head ; Life flows afresh ; and young eyed Health exalts The whole creation round . Contentment walks The sunny glade , and feels an inward bliss Spring o'er his mind , beyond the power of kings
To purchase . Pure seienity apace Induces thought , and contemplation still . By swift degrees the love of Nature works , And warms ' the bosom ; till at last suMim'd To rapture , and enthusiastic heat , We feel the present Deity , and taste The joy of God to see a happy world . THOMSON ' S Siring , 8 S 8 .
The real sensations excited bj : Nature in the various changes of ' theyear , are by no poet whatever more attentively observed , or more forcibly painted , than by Thomson . In the history of the Fine Arts it is a fact not to be controverted , that the temperate climates have been most productive of poets . With all the mutability of weather which we experience , we are , neverfhe- - lessin a situation peculiarly happy for the fostering of genius .
Wit-, ness not only the works of those who were either prior to the time included by Dr . Johnson , or who were criticised by him , but also the writings of such as are still living , or not long since dead . ' If , however , we ascend to higher latitudes , we shall find the inhabitants of those quarters better calculated for the chace or war , than for poetic composition . The severe coldnesswhich strings their nervesis
, , too intense for the cherishing of that temperament which is requisite for a poetic spirit . It is true , indeed , Bartholinus , Scheffer , and Olaus Wormius , give us specimens of Lapponian and Runic poetry . The assertion , that climate influences imagination , is not , therefore , to be so understood as admitting of no exception . There is a Hecla in Iceland ; and it may occasianally happen that ,
In climes beyond , the solar road , Where shaggy forms o ' er ice-built mountains roam , The Muse has broke the twilight-gloom To cheer the shivering native ' s dull abode .
GREY ' S Trogr . of Poet . 2 . 2 . jStill , however , the general characteristic of nations l ying in regions far northern , is rather a capacity for bodily exertion , than a promptitude in works of imagination . And from this effect , of continued coldness on nations at large , it may fairly be concluded , that , in climes more temperate , tiie vigour of imagination may be . checked in individuals , by an occasional severity of weather .