oftener led astray by this faculty than by all others. Bishop Butler, whose studies brought him to investigate its pernicious influence on the reasonings of his contemporaries and predecessors in morals and religion, passed upon it a severe sentence of unqualified censure: "We are accustomed, from our youth up, to indulge that forward, delusive faculty, ever obtruding beyond its sphere; of some assistance, indeed, to apprehension, but the author of all error." Not only is it the most active of the mental powers, but it is the most independent also. To a greater or less extent, it controls, influences, and quickens each of the other faculties; but it is itself, or it may be, wholly independent of the control of each and all of the others. It can even induce the mind to question, set aside, and wholly disbelieve the evidence of the senses, the most positive and tangible of all proof. It attests its marvellous power in the watches of the night, when, seizing the helm, it hurries the mind through regions of the wildest improbability and conjecture; at a single leap, passes from meditation to conclusion, from earth to heaven; and scorning all barriers of time and space, whirls the intellect, captive and powerless, from one extreme of the universe to the other; nor leaves it, until, trembling and affrighted, it bursts from its control with a quivering shock, unable longer to support the fierce and unnatural excitement. But it displays its terrible ascendency the most fearfully, when, by sufferance or misfortune, it has at length O acquired despotic control over the waking thoughts and faculties; when it has conquered reason and sports with realities; when it has transformed a noble intelligence into a drivelling idiot; a manly and ambitious aspirant into a silly and wavering gazer; a generous enthusiast into a raving and furious maniac. To this ever-active, bold, and restless faculty, fiction itself the creation of imagination - addresses itself. The natural tendency to a constant and controlling exercise is thus increased by the appliance of a most powerful stimulant. It is as though the morbidly nervous man should surrender himself to the influence of opiates and narcotics; as though the slave of appetite should be furnished with the means of gratifying all the senses; as though the victorious warrior should discover new enemies and new provocations. The natural order of the faculties is inverted. Reason, which should be the guide, becomes the slave of the fancy; and the throne of calm judgment is usurped by credulous enthusiasm. Lost in a chaos of reveries, the mind no longer performs its high functions; figments are mistaken for facts; conjectures become certainties; hopes assume the form of expectations; dreams and chimeras receive the consideration due to actual existences. The natural and legitimate connection between means and ends dissolves into an absurd and irrational one; labor, industry, and application are abandoned for the contemplation of chance, accident, or some happy casualty; the attainable objects of a worthy ambition are overlooked and despised, and the energies of the mind are wasted in attempting unattainable and fanciful results. For History Such are some of the effects which fiction produces on the intellect. These results are by no means all that would admit of an enumeration in detail. Yet they are what seem to be the more general and noticeable effects. A mere outline sketch has been drawn, which, in the filling up, might be made to assume a force and vividness of expression which would at once be recognized, and which could not fail of being remembered. this purpose, illustrations must be adduced. abounds in them. Observation, such observation as the most careless practise, will have noted them. The deplorable effects in degree may not have been observed; but the same effects in kind. It is not of the degree of the effect of fiction on the intellect that we have remarked, but of the kind. This last must depend upon the nature of the intellectual faculties, and upon the attributes of fiction; the former, upon the extent of the abuse, and the amount of the indulgence. Debasing fiction not only affects the intellect, but produces more lamentable and serious consequences on the moral nature; and so intimate is the connection which exists between these component parts of the human mind, that one cannot be affected, for better or worse, without affecting the other. POETICAL PORTRAITS. SHAKSPEARE. His was the wizard spell The spirit to enchain; His grasp o'er Nature fell, Creation owned his reign. MILTON. His spirit was the home Of aspiration high! A temple, whose huge dome Was hidden in the sky. THOMSON. The Seasons, as they roll, Shall bear thy name along, And, graven on the soul Of Nature, live thy song. GRAY. Soaring on pinions proud, The lightnings of his eye Scar the black thunder-cloud, He passes swiftly by. BURNS. He seized his country's lyre, With ardent grasp and strong, And made his soul of fire Dissolve itself in song. SOUTHEY. Where Necromancy flings O'er Eastern lands her spell, Sustained on Fable's wings, His spirit loves to dwell. COLERIDGE. Magician, whose dread spell, From superstition's cell Invokes each satellite ! WORDSWORTH. He hung his harp upon Philosophy's pure shrine; And, placed by Nature's throne, Composed each placid line. CAMPBELL. With all that Nature's fire Can lend to polished art, |