The Southern Literary Messenger, Vol. I., No. 12, August, 1835Various
History
The Southern Literary Messenger, Vol. I., No. 12, August, 1835
Various
American literature -- 19th century -- Periodicals
In unison with the division here made of the associating principles,
it is easy to explain the character of three distinct orders of mind,
which will of course appear widely different in the conversational
displays of the social circle. There is, first, the _common mind_,
associating its ideas together by palpable resemblance or contrast
among them, and by the mere casual and loose contiguity in time and
place. Secondly, _the poetical or sentimental mind_, associating
principally by resemblance or contrast in the effects produced by
objects or the emotions which they excite. And thirdly, the
_philosophical mind_, associating principally by necessary contiguity
in time and place, by cause and effect, premises and conclusions.
Such a mind as the first, is most impressed with the details and
occurrences around. It never ascends to the original contemplation of
ideas and thoughts which belong to the region of philosophy and
poetry. It may, it is true, recollect sometimes, distant and beautiful
analogies, or even philosophical associations, but it is purely
because it has heard these things spoken of by others, and not from
original conception. Such a mind has no creative power of its own; as
it receives so does it pour forth, without alteration. It has been
well compared to the cistern into which water is poured; you have
nothing to do but turn the cock and out it comes (as one of our
newspaper editors recently observed, in relation to a different
subject,) "water, dirt, sticks, bugs, pine tags and all!" Such a mind
has no _productive power_ whatever. In this flood of details, you see
no connecting principle like cause and effect, premises and
conclusions, &c.--but this thing is remembered because it is like
that. This fact is now related because it was spoken at the same time
with that, or in the same place. Such an individual as this has, as
Diderot expresses it, "une tête meublée d'un grand nombre de choses
disparates," which he says resembles a library with mismatched books,
or a German compilation garnished, without reason and without taste,
with Hebrew, Arabic, Greek, and Latin.
Such individuals as these are more pleasing and amusing to us in
conversation, when the mind is not otherwise engaged, than most of us
are willing to allow. They spread before us a promiscuous feast of
neighborhood news, and like Mathews the comedian, although there be
but one speaker, they give you the _sayings_, the _conjectures_, the
_shrugs_, and the _winks_ of all the parties concerned, and thus give
to their communications quite a dramatic effect. Barbers, midwives,
seamstresses, hostesses, &c. cultivate this kind of association to the
greatest pitch of perfection. Their professions may be said to demand
it.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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