recollect, that in very compound medicines, the several tastes and flavours of the separate ingredients are lost and overpowered by the complex one of the mass; so that it has a taste of its own, which appears to be simple and original. Thus also white appears, and is vulgarly thought to be, the simplest of all colours; but it really arises from a certain mixture of the seven primary colours in their due shades and proportions.

We shall have occasion afterwards to say something respecting the mode in which what are called abstract ideas are formed; and we shall in this place confine ourselves to some remarks respecting the mental feelings, i. e. those pleasures and pains in which sensation is not immediately concerned. These Hartley calls intellectual pleasures and pains: we prefer the term mental feelings, in opposition to the mere corporeal pleasures and pains, the pleasures and pains of sensation.-The term sensations, is too often used in reference to the mental feelings; but it should be strictly confined to those feelings (using the word in its widest sense), which are produced independently of association, by affections of the bodily organs of sense.

Now the whole system of mental pleasures and pains is formed by the agency of the associative power (under the occasional control and modification of the understanding), from relicts of the pleasures and pains of sensation. The sensible pleasures and pains leave feelings behind them, corresponding to the simple ideas of sight or hearing. These feelings (agreeably to the law stated at the beginning of this section), become associated with other feelings derived from the same, or similar external objects; and when the union has been exercised sufficiently long, they become blended together, so as to form a complex (though apparently simple) feeling, which may itself become united with other complex feelings; and so on. The greater the number and diversity of the component feelings, the more remote will the complex feeling be from resemblance to the original sensible pleasures or pains.

These complex feelings are continually receiving fresh materials, from the union and combination of the simple feelings derived immediately from sensation,—of the various complex feelings already associated with those sensations,--and of those which in different ways are called up by the various exercises of the memory, imagination, and understanding.--From these sources together, the vividness of the mental pleasures and pains may, in many instances, be as great as that of the sensible pleasures and pains; and indeed we know, as a matter of fact, that the influence of the former on the mind, is often much greater than that produced by very vivid pleasures and pains of the latter class.

These views must, one would conceive, be admitted by all who have attentively considered the laws of association, and the actual processes of their own minds in the formation, or variation, of their feelings associated with any object, and the gradual formation aud refinement of the feelings of children; and they lead to a variety of most important conclusions connected with education and self-culture. Some of these will be hereafter stated.

Our original bodily structure, and the impressions and associations which affect us in passing through life, are so far alike, that there must be a general resemblance among mankind in respect of their mental pleasures and pains; and yet, as there are great diversities in the causes, there must be also in the effects. Similar remarks might be made respecting that class of ideas which we term notions.

The sensible pleasures and pains have a greater tendency to destroy the body than the mental ones. The latter being collected from various sources, do not much injure any organ particularly, but rather bring on an equable gradual decay of the system. This, however, is upon the supposition that they are not excessive; for excessive desires or emotions, even if of a refined nature, have a direct tendency to injure the mental system generally, and especially to bring on that derange

ment of it, which is closely allied to insanity, even if it do not bear the name.

§. 4. On the Affections, &c.

The limits of this work will not permit us to enter into the analysis of our mental pleasures and pains, or into any particulars respecting the different classes of our affections, &c.; but the reader will find ample sources of information in the latter part of Hartley's first volume, and in Dr. Cogan's excellent works on the Passions. To illustrate, however, the formation of the affections, we shall here give a brief history of the filial affection in its early stages; and then we shall state some of the chief principles respecting the affections and feelings in general.

1. Of the Filial Affections.-A child receives almost all his earliest pleasures from his parents, or in connexion with them. These all leave behind them feelings which the ever active principle of association unites and blends together, and connects with the appearance, and idea, and name of the parents; and thus renders it pleasant to a child to see them, and to hear and think of them. By degrees he learns to distinguish them, as the cause of many things which give him pleasure he perceives them endeavouring to do what will make him feel happy: he is the object of a thousand tender endearments and kind offices: and every thing of this description, which at all affects his mind, leaves some impression behind it, which unites and blends with the feelings before produced, by other similar circumstances. Thus gradually rises up in the mind that part of the filial affection which we term love. If children have little intercourse with their parents, or that be little productive of pleasing feelings, their love will be weak; in other cases it often early proves very powerful.

Filial love cannot advance far, without exciting in the mind of a child the disposition to do what he finds will please his

parents. He is early incited to this by the promise of some gratification, by the expectation of some endearment, &c.; and such is the wise structure of our mental frame, that what is often done with a view to some good, gradually becomes itself pleasant, and is done without any direct view to that good. Thus a child forms a desire to please his parents, which constitutes another part of filial affection.

Again, in a wise education, it will often be found necessary to check the gratifications of a child, to use the language and tone of displeasure, and sometimes even to inflict pain. Every circumstance of this kind leaves behind it an impression, which, uniting and blending with others of the same kind, produces the feeling of fear. If this, owing to any cause, is excessive, it gives to the filial affection a character, which makes it rather the source of pain than of pleasure, and sometimes even overcomes the love. On the other hand, where it is moderate, (arising only from that degree of privation, or pain, which is necessary for the future welfare of the child), so far from lessening the happiness of the filial affection, it increases it, blending with the love, so as to lose its own painful influence; and, at the same time giving firmness and even vigour to filial love, by heightening the disposition to obedience, and thereby increasing the pleasing consequences of obedience, by heightening the fear to offend, and consequently preventing the ill consequences of disobedience.

Thus by pleasures derived from the care and tenderness of parents, and by the privations which their care and tenderness may alike cause, a vast number and variety of impressions are produced; which, all uniting and blending together, constitute the filial affection, consisting principally of fear and love, the desire to please, and the fear to offend. As the child advances in knowledge, and as the conscience acquires its power, the sense of obligation, the perception of the virtues of his parents, the feelings which he is led to entertain towards God, and a great variety of other sources, contribute impressions of duty, of gratitude, of respect, &c. towards

the general affection, uniting and blending with it, and increasing its strength and vigour; so that it often becomes a leading affection through the whole of life.

We have taken only one case, but the reader may easily pursue the same plan in other cases. Perhaps it may be truly said, that in no two instances is the filial affection in every respect the same; it is formed from impressions so numerous, so various, and often so peculiar; and depends so much upon peculiarities in the dispositions and conduct of the parent, and in the dispositions of the child.

What may with propriety be termed the natural affection of children towards their parents, (arising without the exercise of reflection at all, merely by the operation of the associative principle,) is almost always the strongest towards the mother; at least if she has also been the nurse: and as the pleasurable feelings of infancy do greatly contribute their share towards the formation of more complex pleasures, and as they cannot be replaced but by a long series of exertions, a mother who wishes to possess the highest degree of her children's affection, and the greatest influence in the regulation of their conduct and dispositions, must also be their nurse.

2. General Observations respecting the Affections, &c.

I. The affections, according to the statements already made, are derived immediately from sensible pleasures or pains received in connexion with any object, or from compound feelings already formed by association, or from both together. They depend therefore for their formation, upon the general activity of the associative power, upon the proper supply of materials from sensible or mental pleasures or pains in connexion with the object, upon the physical sensibility of the system, and upon the facility and vividness of the powers of recollection and conception. No affections can spring up towards any one with whom we have no intercourse, unless that deficiency is supplied by proper impressions on the mind, through the medium of the intellect.