f these reveries and
day-dreams. Although these illegitimate offsprings of "retired leisure"
may be considered as a perversion of the noblest attribute of man; yet
they serve, in some degree, to recruit our recollection of past
transactions, which might otherwise have faded in obscurity, or perished
from natural decay. In the soundest and most refreshing sleep we seldom
dream; so, in those wholesome exercises of the intellect where the mind
is fully occupied, and, more especially, when such pursuit is combined
with bodily exertion, these masterless associates do not intrude. By
continuance, this habit may be so formidably increased, more especially
under the guidance of malignant or depressing passions, that these
shadows become embodied, and assume a form so potent and terrible, that
the will is unable to bind them down, and the understanding attempts to
exorcise them in vain.

The act of thought or reflection, therefore, appears to consist, not in
the operation of an exclusive and particular faculty, but in the
voluntary recollection of pictures, as far as visible perception is
involved, and of terms or words which are the types or representatives
of our perceptions, together with those general terms, which are to be
considered as abbreviations of meaning or intelligence. All this would,
however, only amount to an act of memory, of such pictures and terms,
particular and general; and would not comprehend or include their
analysis, estimate, admeasurement, or _ratio_, with inquiries into their
source and tendency, which is denominated _reason_, and which will
compose the materials of the following chapter. Suffice it to observe
that our thoughts on any subject can only be according to the extent of
our knowledge of things and opinions; and, therefore, that our thoughts
or reflections necessarily involve our reasonings, as they are only
recollections without them.

FOOTNOTES:

[15] In this capability animals will never rival us, as they are
deficient of the _hand_, the operative instrument by which it is
effected.

[16] It may be proper to explain the origin and meaning of this word,
and of another usually employed in a similar sense, namely,
contemplation. The former is compounded of _cum_ and _sidus_, and
presumes a fixity of mind adequate to the survey of the heavenly bodies;
the latter is derived from _cum_ and _templum_, and imports the same
gravity and concentration of thought which we carry to the fane of
d