beauty still oftener induces this intoxicating glow; under which the anticipations of possible delight from closer intimacy with the object of so great charm are wild and extravagant to a degree; and it is not to be wondered at, that a condition of intense longing should grow up while those splendid possibilities are in the view. To yield to these frenzied delights is one of our human weaknesses, to which experience applies a partial and painful corrective. I am here, however, concerned principally with the explanation that is to be afforded of what is anomalous and perplexing in the phenomenon. In consequence of the fact, that the pleasures of the unreal are, in the great majority of instances, accompanied with a sense of comparative inferiority to some possible state of happiness, a desire emerges, and with that an ideal chase, which may work up the mind to something of the higher pitch of feeling that was longed for. The poor Bedlamite, imagining himself a king deprived of his throne, sets his wits to work to compass its recovery, and, by a series of brilliant strokes, is at last rewarded with the full consciousness of monarchial possession. Such is the result of a few hours spent in a day-dream. The enjoyment while it lasts may be very intense; the revolutions of the physical system of the dreamer, or the accidental turns given to his thoughts, bring the whole fabric to pieces, and he has to start again from his old position. The elation of wine and narcotics often witnesses the imaginary campaigns and adventures of a mind under inflamed desire. There is, to begin with, a nervous exaltation, physical in its origin, giving a certain tone of pleasurable consciousness, with which one might remain content without passing into dream-land. But it would seem to be the peculiarity of this condition, to encourage the intellect to construct or imagine modes of high delight, by inducing the ruling passion, by suggesting the brightest experiences of the past, and by recalling those gay pictures of happiness that have passed before the eyes, so as, with much present gratification, to bring into view a far larger possibility of bliss. When such is the case, desire and imagination commence their

ILLUSTRATION OF THE LAW OF THE WILL.

453 career, and in the end perhaps succeed in working up a still greater degree of nervous exaltation. The modes of pleasure that have this inflammatory character well deserve to be signalized as a class apart. It might seem as if certain pleasures could be described as inflammatory in a special degree, while others are soothing and satisfying. I apprehend, however, that all pleasures are inflammatory, by the very law of their being. There are two recognised modes of counterworking the tendency. The one is founded on the circumstance that voluminous pleasures are soporific. The other is the check of some pain. What is called sobriety in the pursuit of pleasure is nothing more than the habit of restraint engendered by painful experiences. The shock of recoil, not unfrequently experienced, in passing from those ideal heights to actual things, is a severe lesson, a powerful stimulus to the will, to curb the license of day-dreaming and desire. In short, we come back to the position that we commenced from, namely, that pleasure is a prompter of the will, for continuance and increase, up to the point when it ceases to be such, or until some pain, present or apprehended, plants a barrier. This after all is the principal groundwork of the illimitable in desire. Content is not the natural frame of any human mind, but is the offspring of compromise and collision, and of the intelligent comparison of good and evil, suggesting when to stop, or what is on the whole the best.

13. In the workings of appetite and desire we see the first principle of the will in bold relief-or the self-acting power of increased pleasure and diminished pain. The shock of an alteration of state on the favourable side is a direct and immediate stimulus to the active forces of the system. A delight growing with every step is exciting and inflammatory in the highest degree; a dead level of feeling is accompanied with inaction. A patient that has been long in the same state neither makes exertions nor indulges hopes of improvement; but let some chance application bring a sensible relief, and he is instantly roused both to action and to hope.

The connexions of Desire with Belief are still to be explained. A succeeding chapter, devoted to this last-named subject, will supply the blank, while endeavouring to elucidate the acknowledged difficulties that beset that whole subject.

1.

IN

CHAPTER IX.

THE MORAL HABITS.

N my former volume, I gave a full exposition of the principle of our constitution at the basis of all our acquired powers; reserving, however, the case of moral acquisitions till a later stage. It is well known that the plastic process, expressed under the Law of Contiguity, operates in the conflicts of the will, so as to increase the power of one motive over the other, until what was at first a drawn battle is at last an easy victory. The child is torn asunder with the difficulty of fixing attention for a length of time upon one thing; the full-grown man or woman ceases to have even the semblance of a struggle. The applications of the plastic process to the confirmation both of prudential volitions and of those that respect the interests of others, constitute an important chapter of the human mind.

The principle of cohesiveness is precisely the same in the present class of acquisitions as in those formerly treated of. There must be a certain amount of repetition, which may be aided by other favouring circumstances (Contiguity, § § 5 and 81). The most considerable of these accessory conditions, apart from natural differences of character, is the disengagement of the mind from other things, and the absorption of it in the matter in hand. Other aiding circumstances are youth, nutrition, and health. The peculiarity of the moral habits, contra-distinguishing them from the intellectual acquisitions, is the presence of two hostile powers, one to be gradually raised into the ascendant over the other. It is necessary, above all things, in such a situation, if possible, never to lose a battle. Every gain on the wrong side undoes the effect of

several conquests on the right. It is, therefore, an essential precaution so to regulate the two opposing powers, that the one may have a series of uninterrupted successes, until repetition has fortified it to such a degree as to cope with the opposition under any circumstances. This is the theoretically best career of moral progress, not often realized in practice.

2. Commencing then from the natural beginning of our subject, I shall first remark upon the control of the volitions f Sense and Appetite. We find, when we come to balance the conflicting interests of life, that the pleasures of sense stimulate us too far in pursuit, and the pains of sense too far in avoidance. The delights of exercise, repose, nourishment, warmth, sweet tastes, fragrant odours, soft contacts, melodious sounds, and the host of various influences operating through the eye, cannot be followed out to all lengths without trenching on other interests present or future; and we want therefore to have those interests represented with sufficient power to interpose a check at the proper point. For that end, we desire to bring the influence of habit to assist the force of volition, which is best done by means of a tolerably unbroken series of decisions on one side. In like manner, we fly such pains as muscular fatigue, acute smarts, thirst, hunger, and indifferent fare, cold or excessive heat, bitter tastes, repulsive odours, &c.; there being, however, valuable interests on whose account we occasionally submit to those painful irritations. What is to be done, therefore, is to mark certain objects as paramount to certain others, and to initiate each person into the deliberative preference by gentle stages. We gain nothing by leaving a hungry child within reach of forbidden fruit; the education not being yet sufficiently advanced to give strength to the motive of restraint. We begin by slight temptations on the one side, while strongly fortifying the motives on the other; and, if there are no untoward reverses to throw back the pupil, we count upon a certain steady progress in the ascendancy that we aim at establishing. Each case has its special difficulties. Sometimes we have to deal with sensual impulses of inordinate strength, and at other times we