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Untitled Article
of ihe mind at these times an unbounded field will be left for a roving imagination . Yet then our ideas may succeed in a regular train , though on account of the rapid transition from one to another their connection may be rendered imperceptible .
Here might be rjpinted out the vast variety of degrees , with respect to these particulars , which may take place at different times . As for instance , an object may have a greater or lesser number of thoughts associated with it , and it may have a greater aptitude at one time arising from the present circumstances and disposition of the mind to inspire a particular kind of ideas than at any other
period . It is evident , therefore , that to the vast variety of objects with which we are surrounded , to the many avenues by means of the organs of sense through which the soul derives its knowledge of them , and associates foreign ideas with them , and to the state of the animal spirits , together with the innumerable combinations ( with respect to kind in most , and to degree in all of them ) they form among thenaselves , we may in general ascribe the uncommonness and instantaneousness of some of our thoughts .
By the assistance of these observations perhaps it may not be difficult to account upon natural principles for the extraordinary thoughts in question , whether they be the revival of old , or the suggestion of original , ideas . A thought long dead and forgotten may be revived by some of the forementioned circumstances , especially if it has at any time greatly affected us and been the source of yn excessive degree of pleasure or nairu
Untitled Article
But the revival of it may be accounted for , let it be of any kind whatever . For besides the principles laid down above there is another circumstance which is peculiarly adapted to recal former ideas suddenly into the mind . From the instantaneity of some of them there seems to be a
wonderful kind of contiguity between one idea and another . As when one immediately succeeds the other where we cannot perceive the most distant connection * But this seems to be the case ; there may be something in what now is , or lately has been , under consideration * perfectly the same with what has occurred in a train of ideas on a former occasion , when reflecting on a differentbubject : thissingle thought
may insensibly call to the mind all that passed in it at that particular time * Or , again , the subject of our past and present reflections may be in all respects perfectly different , but there may be something in our circumstances exactly alike ; and this similarity of circumstances may , and some * times certainly does , revive the former subject , however dissimilar to the present . This we may know to be sometimes the case by experience .
1 he second Kind ot thoughts are those which are apparently more original and striking . These may partly proceed from the first source , and partly from an extraordinary state of the mind , including the vanous combinations of the forementioned cases . All these taken together may be sufficient to account for every thought of the kind . The principal appearance of its novelty may arise from the impravements it may have received from accidental circumstances .
Untitled Article
The Suggestion of Instantaneous Thoughts . 271 0
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), May 2, 1814, page 271, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2440/page/15/
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