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Untitled Article
employed literally and primarily—whea of the . mnd . seconforiWjandiiguraUveiy . Not for&ttlng this slenderdistmctioiuM usmotice ^ ine # f , flie more obvious points ofthe resemblance . ( . , ^ , {^ / i li ^ yt ^ hgth of the b 00 jr Im pends iiipp iD ^^ s ^^||^ e ^ i ^ Jfi | t ^ relativelyjtist proportion of its parts arid nierribers . u- ^ ' W -wftfllffi ' iPJ ^^ W ^
the saitie sort of proportion is essential . True ! vigour j Oi £ h e ^ tqjject : . exists drily &Her £ all its faculties ' are so well and rigtltl v cuftiya ^' that ; tjiey assist each other , and produce jointly the greatest possible effect , ]\^ ei » ory , alone is incapable of constituting what we ( Je ^ cpqifLate a strong and powerful mind : so is judgment ; so is imagination . Even a Targe storehouse of facts will be useless if we are unable to distinguish and separate them , and to avail ourselves of them for the purposes of study and of life . Not niore , valuable is a capacity of the nicest discrimination , of the closest reasoning , where we have scarcely any materials on which to exercise it : and fancy ,
which combines rather than creates , will be improved , within certain limits , by recollection and by tajste ; . Those theories and p lans of education are not a little faulty , in which no regard is paid to each of the grand divisions of the mental powers , and which make no provision for eliciting all of them , for encouraging their growth , an . d for directing their application . To lay it down as a general rule , that memory and judgment are incompatible with
one another , or a sound understanding with a livel y imagination ^ is to commit a great speculative and practical error . Striking instances of this kind of disunion have , no doubt , been recorded , and may be perceived . They are the more striking from their comparative rarity . We can trace them usually to defects in early instruction and discipline : and they should be cited as Exceptions , instead of being urged as precedents .
As bodily vigour , if not produced , is , however , maintained and increased by exercise , so intellectual vigour , to be possessed in any perfection , must be used . In this respect , tod , the laws which govern our animal and those which regulate our mental constitution , are the same . Acts of strength are , in both cases , made requisite to the end of forming habits of strength . Gradual declension of force is the consequence , and , ultimately , the punishment , Of supineness . At first sight we may wonder at the vastness of the
corporeal power which some men exert : but our astonishment vanishes when we observe the means employed by them for the attainment and the augmentation of this power . It is thus as to intellectual might ; . In both parts of our frame there may exist , unquestionably , a sort of constitutional predisposition to strength or to weakness : yet this is not nearly so important as the added strength or weakness arising in the one instance from wise and assiduous , in the other froin neglected or perverted , cultivation .
I shall glance at a further point of resemblance between the vigour of the body and that of the intellect . A main benefit of a Sound and healthy state of the body , is the strength which it supplies against the less favourable effects of the atmosphere and the seasons . In like manner , from the healthy condition of the powers of the mind scarcely any higher advantage results than its freedom from a susceptibility of gross prejudices and partial views . There are men
1 . . . , $ ervil £ to 8 ^ skyey influences , That do this habitation , where tfyey keep , Hourly assail . Others are so fortified , b y nature or habit , against these sudden and extreme vicissitudes , that hardly any-thing disturbs the force and compactness Of their
Untitled Article
730 Essay on Intellectual Vigour .
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Nov. 2, 1828, page 730, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2566/page/2/
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