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for the faculties to have been suspended in sleep than thus wasted and impaired * There may be more folly hidden under a grave exterior than displayed in outward mirth ; and it sometimes happens that a child is employing his mind more usefully amidst his noisy sports , than his parent while seemingly absorbed in meditation . Let it not be supposed that continual effort is requisite to make our reflections , or even our reveries ,
conducive to our intellectual improvement . This would be too hard a condition of excellence . The effort is unremittingly necessary only during the formation of our habits of mind , only while setting the machine in motion . The subsequent task of keeping its parts in repair , and removing the obstacles to their action , will be comparatively easy . The effort is often painful , it is true ; but labour is the condition of attainment in this life ; and no labour can be better bestowed than in the regulation of the intellectual
powers , which are themselves the instruments by which every solid good is to be obtained . Some few are so happy as to have been early trained to intellectual as well as moral self-controul ; but the greater number are obliged to form the habit for themselves as they advance in life , or to forego the advantages it confers ; and such are qualified mournfully to sympathize with the pious man who blushed to think that if his very prayers were written down and interlined with the irrelevant ideas which presented
themselves in the midst of his devotions , what a crowd of incoherencies and degrading associations they would present . It is probable that we are all painfully sensible of our transgressions irr this respect ; if not , it would be well to attempt for once the tedious task of writing down the ideas ( as well as we could recollect them ) which have passed through our minds during any two minutes of any reverie . But one experiment would be necessary
to convince us of the waste of time and power which takes place every day from the want of intellectual controul . The night affords time enough for dreaming ; and the sports of imagination can be sufficiently indulged during the intervals of serious thought which every day affords . Because they are salutary , they should not only be allowed , but exalted and cherished ; but , because they are so delightful as to be engrossing , they should be carefully restrained .
When the attention is fixed on an idea , or on a series of ideas , contemplating their relations and circumstances so closely that other thoughts are excluded , the mind is engaged in meditation . This act is the most efficacious by which our knowledge can be converted into wisdom . By this exercise , more than by any other , is the power of the intellect increased , and its capacity enlarged . By this exercise alone can the wealth of other minds be transferred to our own , and the extent of our mental resources be
ascertained . The secret which Newton disclosed respecting his marvellous achievements , cannot be too widely known , or too carefully attended to . He declared that his intellectual power was not derived from any peculiar endowment , but from a habit of patient thought . On another occasion , when questioned respecting his method of beginning a train of inquiry , he replied , * 'I waited for thought . ' * He placed the object of inquiry before
his mind , and ( as some degree of excitement must always precede vigorous and profound thought , ) he observed the qualities and relations of the object in view , excluded all irrelevant ideas , and thus kept his mind open for the reception of all suggestions , and free from the influence of all perversions . He was not only remarkably exempt from the moral imperfections which overcloud the understanding , from selfishness , ( including fear , ) and prejudice , but from the intellectual perversions to which almost every man is subject .
Untitled Article
752 Essays on the Art of Thinking .
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Nov. 2, 1829, page 752, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2578/page/8/
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