[Footnote 2: Donaldson's "History of Christian Literature and Doctrine,"
Vol. I., p. 277.]

[Footnote 3: Intensity of passion stands confessed in the
self-delineations of men of imaginative genius. We forbear to quote the
familiar instances of Wordsworth, Shelley, or Burns, but may refer to a
remarkable chapter in the life of the famous Scotch preacher, Dr. Thomas
Chalmers. The mere title of the chapter is enough for our purpose. It
related to his early youth, and ran thus, in his own words:--"A year of
mental elysium". It is while living at a white-heat that all the
thoughts and conceptions take a lofty, hyperbolical character; and the
outpouring of these at the time, or afterwards, is the imagination of
the orator or the poet.

The spread of the misconception that we have been combating is perhaps
accounted for by the circumstance that imagination in one man is the
cause of feeling _in others_. Wordsworth, by his imaginative colouring,
has excited a warmer sentiment for nature in many spectators of the lake
country. That, however, is a different thing. We may also allow that the
poet intensifies his own feelings by his creative embodiments of them.]

* * * * *

II.

ERRORS OF SUPPRESSED CORRELATIVES.[4]

By Relativity is here meant the all-pervading fact of our nature that we
are not impressed, made conscious, or mentally alive, without some
change of state or impression. An unvarying action on any of our senses
is the same as no action at all. An even temperature, such as that
enjoyed by the fishes in the tropical seas, leaves the mind an entire
blank as regards heat and cold. We can neither feel nor know without
recognising two distinct states. Hence all knowledge is double, or is
the knowledge of contrasts or opposites: heavy is relative to light; up
supposes down; being awake implies the state of sleep.

The applications of the law in the sphere of emotion are chiefly
contemplated in what follows. Pleasure and pain are never absolute
states; they have reference always to the previous condition. Until we
know what that has been in any case, we cannot pronounce upon the
efficacy of a present stimulation. We see a person reposing, apparently
in luxurious ease; if the state has been immediately consequent upon a
protracted and severe exertion, we are right in calling it highly
pleasurable. Under other circumstances, it might be quite the reverse.

There is an offshoot or