PART IV.

VIEW OF THE QUALITIES AND ACQUIREMENTS WHICH CONSTITUTE A WELL REGULATED MIND.

In concluding this outline of facts regarding the intellectual powers and the investigation of truth, we may take a slight review of what those qualities are which constitute a well regulated mind, and which ought to be aimed at by those who desire either their own mental culture, or that of others who are under their care. The more important considerations may be briefly recapitulated in the following

manner :

I. The cultivation of a habit of steady and continuous attention; or of properly directing the mind to any subject which is before it, so as fully to contemplate its elements and relations. This is necessary for the due exercise of every other mental process, and is the foundation of all improvement of character, both intellectual and moral. We shall afterward have occasion to remark, how often sophistical opinions and various distortions of character may be traced to errors in this first act of the mind, or to a misdirection and want of due regulation of the attention. There is, indeed, every reason to believe that the diversities in the power of judging, in different individuals, are much less than we are apt to imagine; and that the remarkable differences observed in the act of judging are rather to be ascribed to the manner in which the mind is previously directed to the facts on which the judgment is afterward to be exercised. It is related of Sir Isaac Newton that when he was questioned respecting the mental qualities which formed the peculiarity of his character, he referred it entirely to the power which he had acquired of continuous attention.

Subject of Part IV? First quality? Its importance. Evils resulting from a want of it? To what two causes may differences in acts of judging be ascribed? Which most commonly the true cause? Newton's remark?

The following directions and cautions will very much assist the pupil in acquiring this intellectual habit.

1. Attempt but one thing at a time, and devote your whole attention exclusively to it. Many young persons continually violate this principle. They will try to study a lesson, and listen to an interesting conversation at the same time, hoping to secure simultaneously the advantage of the one and the pleasure of the other. But, in fact, the pleasure of the conversation is destroyed by the uneasy and distracting feeling which the circumstances occasion, and the attention to the book is of the most superficial and useless character; so that both objects are lost. In the same manner, a pupil engaged in some mathematical calculations will station himself at a window, where he may look down on some busy scene, the animating influences of which, he imagines, may cheer his labors; whereas, in fact, in such a case, he can neither enjoy the prospect nor perform his work.

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2. Another most common way by which habits of inattention and wandering of mind are formed and fixed, is, not attempting exactly to do two things, but attempting one with the mind all the time plexed with doubt whether ought not to be doing another. This is a very common source of injury. The most ruinous consequences to the intellectual habits of the young, especially, often result from it; for they seldom have much plan or system in the arrangement of their time. He who acts from the impulse of the moment, must be always exposed to this difficulty; for this impulse will continually fluctuate and vary. He will take up one book, and after reading a page will think another would be more interesting, and changing from one to the other will lose all the benefit of both. Or he will be employed in studying a lesson, with his mind all the time distracted with the question which he continually stops to consider, whether he shall not give up his lesson and read a story, or he will read the story with a secret conviction that he ought to be studying a lesson. There cannot be practices more destructive to present enjoyment, or more ruinous to the habits of the mind.

3. Another most common cause of careless and superficial habits of attention is, undertaking what is not fairly within the powers of the individual. If a reader cannot fully understand and appreciate the work which he has undertaken, he insensibly acquires the habit of running over it with his eye, while his mind is really occupied with something else. He receives perhaps a few ideas, he catches a little of the train of thought, but he enters not into the spirit of the work at all. Thousands and thousands of books are read in this way, the reader taking merely what lies upon the surface, and having no idea. that there is any thing below. This too is destructive to all correct habits of attention.

By these three precautions, viz. carefully confining the attention to the single object which for the time being is before it,-regulating the selection of objects by some systematic principle, so that while we

First principle? Common modes of violating it. Consequences? Second principle. Common ways of violating it? Consequences. Third principle. Consequences of violating it? Recapitulation of the three principles ?

are pursuing one study no other neglected duty can come in to claim our attention-and never undertaking what is not fairly within the reach of our powers, we may soon acquire habits of continuous and steady attention, at least in the study of books. But in order to form correct habits of attention in the highest sense, it is not enough for the individual to practise on books. He must practise on men and things. That is, he must not only, when engaged in reading, attend to his books, but when out in society, and surrounded by persons, and by the various objects of life, he must attend to them. That mind is as badly disciplined which loses itself in a revery when surrounded by society, as the one which continually wanders in search of amusement when its possessor is endavoring to confine it to books. In a word, give the whole attention with a vigor and earnestness to the object, whatever it may be, which, for the time being, is properly before you.

Faithful practice on these principles will soon give the pupil this first quality of a well regulated mind.

II. Nearly connected with the former, and of equal ̄importance, is a careful regulation and control of the succession of our thoughts. This remarkable faculty is very much under the influence of cultivation, and on the power so acquired depends the important habit of regular and connected thinking. It is primarily a voluntary act; and in the exercise of it in different individuals there are the most remarkable differences. In some the thoughts are allowed to wander at large without any regulation, or are devoted only to frivolous and transient objects; while others habitually exercise over them a stern control, directing them to subjects of real importance, and prosecuting these in a regular and connected manner. This important habit gains strength by exercise, and nothing, certainly, has a greater influence in giving tone and consistency to the whole character. It may not, indeed, be going too far to assert that our condition, in the scale both of moral and intellectual beings, is in a great measure determined by the control which we have acquired over the succession of our thoughts, and by the subjects on which they are habitually exercised.

The regulation of the thoughts is, therefore, a high concern; in the man who devotes his attention to it as a study of supreme importance, the first great source of astonishment will be the manner in which his thoughts have been

To what applicable besides the study of books? General principle? Second quali ty? How far voluntary? Differences of character in this respect. Consequences depending?

occupied in many an hour and many a day that has passed over him. The leading objects to which the thoughts may be directed, are referable to three classes. (1.) The ordinary engagements of life, or matters of business, with which every man is occupied in one degree or another; including concerns of domestic arrangement, personal comfort, and necessary recreation. Each of these deserves a certain degree of attention, but this requires to be strictly guided by its real and relative importance; and it is entirely unwor thy of a sound and regulated mind to have the attention solely or chiefly occupied with matters of personal comfort, or of trivial importance, calculated merely to afford amusement for the passing hour. (2.) Visions of the imagination built up by the mind itself when it has nothing better to occupy it. The mind cannot be idle, and when it is not occupied by subjects of a useful kind, it will find a resource in those which are frivolous or hurtful,-in mere visions, waking dreams, or fictions, in which the mind wanders from scene to scene, unrestrained by reason, probability or truth. No habit can be more opposed to a healthy condition of the mental powers; and none ought to be more carefully guarded against by every one who would cultivate the high acquirement of a well regulated mind. (3.) Entirely opposed to the latter of these modes, and distinct also in a great measure from the former, is the habit of following out a connected chain of thoughts on subjects of importance and of truth, whenever the mind is disengaged from the proper and necessary attention to the ordinary transactions of life. The particular subjects to which the thoughts are directed in cultivating this habit, will vary in different individuals; but the consideration of the relative value of them does not belong to our present subject. The purpose of these observations is simply to impress the value of that regulation of the thoughts by which they can always find an occupation of interest and importance distinct from the ordinary transactions of life, or the mere pursuit of frivolous engagements; and also totally distinct from that destructive habit by which the mind is allowed to run to waste amid visions and fictions unworthy of a waking man.

Classification of the objects of thought? First class? Its proper importance? Se. cond class? Influence of this habit? Third class. Influence of this habit?

In acquiring this second quality of a well regulated mind, there are several ways in which the pupil may practise. It will of course be understood that this head refers to the employment of the thoughts when they are at liberty, as when the individual is walking, or sitting alone, or engaged in those employments which do not necessarily occupy the mind. The following are some of the methods by which the mind can be in such cases usefully employed.

1. Reviewing, and fixing in the memory, what has been read, or learned in any other way. You have been engaged, we will imagine, in a book of travels; now you can call up to mind the scenes described there. Commence the journey with the traveller in imagination, anew, and go regularly forward, calling up to mind as fully as possible all the adventures and incidents which the book described. The same may be done with any other work.

2. Pursuing a connected train of thought on some useful subject selected for this purpose. You take, for instance, for your subject, "Common instances of Insincerity," and making a logical division of it, you consider one head at a time, regularly examining it in all its bearings and relations, as if you were going to write a treatise upon the subject. You first think, perhaps, of insincere professions for the sake of civility,-call to mind as many cases as you can, and arrange and classify them. In the next place you take cases of false appearances assumed from vanity, and pursue this in the same way. Thus the whole subject may be explored, and reduced to order and system in your own mind. The subjects which may in this way be examined are innumerable.

3. Systematic and attentive observation. In this case, the thoughts are not engaged in reviewing past attainments, or in exploring a subject of reflection, but in examining with interest and care visible objects around. If riding through a new country he may study its geographical features, or the pursuits and occupations of its inhabitants. If taking an evening walk, he can examine with care the plants or flowers he sees, or, by conversation with the various individuals he may meet with, increase his knowledge of human character and ac tion. He may thus draw off his thoughts from the field of mere reflec tion, and apply them, with active interest, to the objects or the scene hrough which he moves. He may, if he chooses to regulate in some legree these studies, select some class of objects to examine, or some point towards which his observations shall tend. For example, when rambling in the fields, he may employ himself in finding as many proofs of contrivance as he can in the works of nature, and to this point direct all his inquiries and observations on his walk, whether he looks at an insect or a plant, or the form and structure of a hill.

Such are the various ways by which solitary thought may be regulated. Reviewing past studies; reflecting systematically on some new

Ways in which the thoughts may be employed. First mode. Example? Second mode Example? Third mode? Examples? Recapitulation?