The Southern Literary Messenger, Vol. I., No. 9, May, 1835Various
History
The Southern Literary Messenger, Vol. I., No. 9, May, 1835
Various
American literature -- 19th century -- Periodicals
The remarks made above, are susceptible of extensive generalization.
Mr. Stuart says, in the third volume of his Elements of the Philosophy
of Mind, "In one of our most celebrated universities, which has long
enjoyed the proud distinction of being the principal seat of
mathematical learning in this Island, I have been assured, that if at
any time a spirit of fanaticism has infected (as will occasionally
happen in all numerous societies,) a few of the unsounder limbs of
that learned body, the contagion has invariably spread much more
widely among the mathematicians, than among the men of erudition. Even
the strong head of Waering, undoubtedly one of the ablest analysts
that England has produced, was not proof against the malady; and he
seems at last (as I am told by the late Dr. Watson, Bishop of
Landaff,) to have sunk into a deep religious melancholy, approaching
to insanity. When Whitefield first visited Scotland, and produced, by
his powerful though unpolished eloquence, such marvellous effects on
the minds of his hearers, Dr. Simpson, the celebrated professor of
mathematics at Glasgow, had the curiosity to attend one of his sermons
in the fields, but could never be persuaded, by all the entreaties of
his friends, to hear another. He had probably felt his imagination
excited in an unpleasant degree, and with his usual good sense
resolved not to subject himself to the danger of a second experiment."
Now it is well known, that mathematical studies exercise the
imagination less perhaps than any other whatever; and the powerful
influence spoken of by Mr. Stewart, was no doubt owing to the fact,
that the individuals in question, had no control over the imagination;
when once excited, they had never learned to manage and restrain it.
Upon the same principles we can explain the wonderful control which
the coquette ultimately acquires over all her feelings. The general
opinion is, that coquettes are cold and feelingless, and have always
been so, and that all their demonstrations of emotion, are the result
of hypocrisy. This may sometimes be the case, but not always. Persons
of this description, may even have intense feelings; but from
constantly watching, restraining and curbing them, after they have
been called into action, they acquire perfect mastery over them. In
some cases, the feelings may be so chained down by habit, as almost to
be destroyed; in fact, this is generally the case with coquettes, and
when they do marry, it is frequently more from policy than love.
Ambition and vanity, in their case, triumph eventually over love and
feeling; and the love of riches, standing, pomp, and show, determines
their choice.[5] There is one species of coquetry for which I have
much compassion and sympathy; it is where the affections of a lady
have really been won by an individual, whom prudence and the advice of
friends, will forever prevent her from marrying. In this case it
sometimes happens, that tenderness on her part, and a desire to avoid
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