LA

Fantastic, irrational, fanciful, bred only in the imag

ination.

Path. To what is the life of man here compared? Dissolution, melting away, destruction, act of becoming liquid.

Relieved, made bright, aided by the interposition of
something unlike.

Luminous, bright, shining, emitting light.
Visions. What are they represented to be ?
Original, beginning, origin, fountain, source.
Deluded, deceived, mocked, derided.
Vision, sight, dream, view, seeing.
.Extinct, gone out, expired, extinguished.
Radiance, brightness, illumination, brilliancy.
Exhales, arises, breathes out, is emitted.
Death. The figure is taken from an appearance
sometimes seen in old grave yards.
Retrospection, looking backwards, act of viewing
what is past.

Expands, widens, opens, grows more extensive.
Its throne. What is reason here called ?

Reluctant, averse, striving against.

Immoveable, fixed, firm, what cannot be moved.
Monarch. What is death made to resemble ?
Reciprocal, mutual, alternate, interchangeable.
Agency, influence, action, state of being in action.
Magnitude, greatness, grandeur, comparative bulk.
-Scorched, burned. Whence the figure ?
Withered, faded, shrunk away, wrinkled.
Impress, stamp, device, mark made by pressure.
Transfused, poured out, spread over.

Contemplation, meditation, studious thought.
.Cumbrous, troublesome, oppressive, burthensome.
Inert, dull, sluggish, motionless.

Insane, crazy, delirious, irrational.

Aspiration, ardent wish, breathing after.

.Ubiquity, yu-bik' wé-té, existence at the same time in

all places.

Mingled, mixed, united, confounded.

Preservation, act of preserving; from preserve.

Who, interrogation, denoting the strongest affirmation.

Encountered, met face to face, attacked.

combinations of words, through which the flashing of his soul escapes to the world, has not had to gather the whole might of his mind, ere he could swell it to grasp the full strength and magnitude of his thought? who, when falling on some of those expressions whose intensity seems to have absorbed the very objects which they designate, has not drank into overwhelming, ere he could exhaust the bursting fulness of the meaning? What but an imagination wider than the domain, and richer than the forms of universal nature, could frame scenes of such amazing magnificence, from whence there comes on the soul such an overwhelming rush of mighty and awful grandeur ? Oh! who would covet, the volcano of such a bosom? who would trust his understanding to the control of such tremendous power ? whose thoughts would not be scattered to insanity as he tried to gather them round the rage and lightning impulse of his high wrought passion, when this giant spirit was contending with some phantom thrown out from the vast creation of his fancy? So familiar have such majestic visions become to him, that the society of men and the scenery of nature can offer nothing which can beguile him from the misery of his craving appetite. He tramples with proud disdain on the ordinary feelings of men, and his grand and majestic spirit rises over its blasted and withered sensations like the tall pyramid of the desert, in which the combined influence of power and desolation and sublimity send a deep awe through the spirit. You will sometimes meet with such breathings of intense misery, as will almost make compassion pause in astonishment, and forget to weep. Then comes out mingled rage and sullen defiance against that Almighty mind, who kindled the spark within him, which he cannot quench. Now he would provoke the thunder of omnipotence, if that thunder could blast him to a nihilation. Then comes forth the lofty ardor of a soul exulting in fanatic pride at that distinction of suffering, which would dislodge an ordinary soul from its tabernacle of clay. Now he overflows with such a tenderness of feelings, with such an admiration of heaven, as would almost exhaust your emotion, then he pours forth spite, and scorn, and bitterness, at those ties, which connect him with humanity.

Flashing of his soul. What is his soul like ?
-Might, power, strength, energy.

Grasp, gripe, seize, catch at, hold in the hand. .Intensity, excess, state of being affected to a high de

gree.

Absorbed, swallowed up, drunk in.
Designate, mark out, indicate, make known.
Domain, dominion, empire, possession.
Universal, all, comprehending every thing.
Magnificence, grandeur, splendor.

-Rush, violent course, plant.

Covet, desire, wish to possess, seek.
Volcano, burning mountain.
Bosom. What is it represented to be?
Tremendous, dreadful, horrible, terrible.
Impulse, mov ment, like what is it?
Wrought, råwt, effected, actuated, excited, raised.
Giant, mighty, powerful, like a giant.
.Scenery, prospects, views, landscapes.
Beguile, allure, deceive, lead astray.
Craving, hungry, insatiable, excessive.
Proud disdain, disdain arising from pride.
Sensations, feelings. What are they like ?
Pyramid, tall, regular, solid figures, found in Egypt.
Sublimity, loftiness of feeling, height; from sublime.
Awe, åw, reverence, reverential fear.

Breathings, glowings, aspirations, inspirations.
Compassion. What is it represented to be?
Defiance, challenge, invitation to fight, expression of
contempt.

▲ Spark within him. What is that spark ? Provoke, challenge, make angry.

.Annihilation, ân-ni-hè-là' shun, act of reducing to nothing.

Fanatic, få nåt' ik, enthusiastic, superstitious.
Dislodge, remove, turn from his lodging; from lodge.
Tabernacle, tenement, habitation, tent, dwelling.
Admiration, åd-me-rà' shun, act of admiring, wonder.
Emotion, feelings, excited feeling, sensation.
Spite, malice, rancor, hate, malignity.
-Humanity, nature of man, human kind, benevo-
lence.

Take another instance of the operation of imagination on those, who are called fanatics or enthusiasts. How often has it swept over the moral world with a desolation like that which follows the irresistible course of the whirlwind how has it concentrated the whole man to one point,-how with a firm, and giant grasp it seizes and amalgamates the energies of various passions, and aiming at some object, no matter whether great or small, real or unreal, it bursts forth like the flaming ebullition of a volcano, and heating the surrounding mass of mind rolls on it in a flood of fire and lays in ruins those institutions which the pride of wisdom has reared on the foundation of ages.

If it were not irreverent on such a subject as this, I could mention how Cowper suffered from the delusions which magnified his distress beyond the actual reality of his guilt; how every passage of holy writ, spoke damnation to his soul: how every event of his life was a messenger of Almighty vengeance; how he read scorn and loathing in every eye that looked on him; how even the most trifling action of his life assumed a magnitude of iniquity, which ontmeasured the guilt of satan, and rung the thunders of the last sentence in his ears.

Physical derangement affects the imagination when it becomes a source of exquisite suffering. One so affected, I have seen, the victim of a causeless sorrow, causeless, I say, for no guilty remembrance, was the secret which haunted him, no dread of calamity, which weighed him down; but a darkness deep and dreadful had settled on his understanding; the fearful agony of his countenance bespoke an unknown something, which gnawed within him; the sound of his voice went through you like the tones of despair: his breath was like the sigh and grasp of a death-bed just at that solemn and dread moment when the soul passes from time into eternity. The healing voice of sympathy he heard not, the distress which met him in the looks of one who felt with him, and wept with him, and suffered with him, he regarded not; or if he did, it was with a heave and swell of agonizing feeling, which I know not if it had not burst his bosom asunder; but he could weep;-he did weep, and his visage resumed the sullen quiet of despondence, the gloom of utter hopelessness.

1

Operation, act of working; from operate. Enthusiasts, en-thů zhè-åsts, persons of heated imaginations.

Moral world, world of men, in distinction from the
natural world.

Irresistible, most powerful, what cannot be resisted.
Amalgamates, makes one, unites metals quickly.
.Energies, powers, strength, mfluences.

Unreal, fictitious, feigned, fanciful.

.Ebullition, boiling up with heat, intestine motion.
Flood of fire, figure from the lava, or streams of fire

from a volcano.

.Reared, erected, raised, elevated.
Foundation, from found.

Irreverent, without due respect, not paying proper
homage, unbecoming.

Delusions, deceptions, mockings; from delude.
-Magnified, inade greater, enlarged, increased, exalted.
-Passage, sentence, expression, place of crossing.
Event, act, deed, end, issue.

Messenger, bearer of a message, one who carries an
errand.

Vengeance, wrath, punishment.

Rung, sounded as from a beil.

Last sentence. What does this mean?

Physical, natural, relating to the body, corporeal.
Derangement, disorder, delirium, insanity.
Exquisite, consummate, far sought, most excessive.
Causeless, without cause.

Guilty remembrance, remembrance of guilt.
Haunted, hån' ted, frequented, was much about.
Calamity, misfortune, miserable accident.
Bespoke, indicated, ordered a thing beforehand,
Gnawed. Of what creature is this peculiarly used ?
Tones of despair. What kind of tones are they?
Spell solemn, sol'em, heard, hård.
Met him, came to his view, was seen by him.
Regarded, heeded, respected, esteemed.
Agonized, most distressed; from agony.
Visage, countenance, aspect, mein.
Sullen, gloomy, angry, sluggishly discontented.
Hopelessness, despair, without hope.