the dead of night, however strong their conviction may be of the absurdity of their fears. We may observe the like pertinacious adherence of feelings, at variance with our reason, in those who are subject to the passion of mauvaise honte. To this passion some are doubtless constitutionally more prone than others; but the strength of it, and the occasions on which it is evinced, depend greatly on the associations of ideas and feelings formed in early life. If a child is brought up, for instance, in a family where receiving and paying visits are regarded as extraordinary events, and attended by formality and constraint of manner, company becomes formidable to his imagination; and it will require frequent intercourse with society in after-life to overcome the effects of such an impression. Notwithstanding the clearest perception of the absurdity of feeling embarrassed before his fellow-creatures, he will often find himself disconcerted in their presence, and thrown into confusion by trifles which his good sense thoroughly despises. In the same manner, an involuntary deference for rank may be observed amidst the strongest conviction of the emptiness of aristocratical distinctions, and the most decided republican principles. The lingering spirit of the feudal system, and the general forms and institutions of society in Europe, have a tendency to infuse into the minds of certain classes such feelings of respect for the greatness of high life, as, when they find themselves in its presence, sometimes overpower the opposite influence of mature opinions.* It is the force of such impressions The powerful effect of such associations is forcibly depicted by Madame de Stael, in the following passage of her posthumous work, that produces so much awkwardness in the manners of our peasantry, and it is freedom from them that often gives an air of dignity to the deportment of the savage. In religion, the strong power of associations in opposition to the convictions of the understanding, is peculiarly worthy of notice, especially in the case of changes from a superstitious to a more rational and liberal creed. The force of a man's education has perhaps long held him in bondage, and his whole feelings have become interwoven with the tenets of his sect. By the enlargement of his knowledge, however, he discovers his early opinions to be erroneous; different conclusions force themselves on his understanding, and his faith undergoes a radical alteration. Yet his former feelings still cling to his mind. A long time must often elapse before he can cast off the authority of his old prepossessions. It is not always that the mind can keep itself at a proper elevation for viewing such subjects in a clear light; and, till it has acquired the power of retaining its vantage-ground, it may where she exhibits the sentiments of the lower classes towards the Aristocracy during the French Revolution : "One would have said that nobody in France could look at a man of consequence, that no member of the Tiers Etat could approach a person belonging to the court, without feeling himself in subjection. Such are the melancholy effects of arbitrary government, and of too extensive distinctions of rank! The animadversion of the lower orders on the aristocratic body have not the effect of destroying its ascendancy, even over those by whom it is hated; the inferior classes, in the sequel, inflicted death on their former masters, as the only method of ceasing to obey them."-Considerations of the principal Events of the French Revolution. vol. i, page 348, (English Translation.) be reduced to its former state by the influence of vivid recollections, customary circumstances, general opinion, or any thing which may occasionally overpower its vigor, or dim its perspicacity. Thus men, who have rejected vulgar creeds in the days of health and prosperity, manfully opposing their clear and comprehensive views to prevailing superstitions, have sometimes exhibited the melancholy spectacle of again stooping to their shackles in the hour of sickness, and at the approach of death: not because their understandings were convinced of error by any fresh light, but because they were unable to keep their rational conclusions steadily in view; because that intellectual strength, which repelled absurd dogmas, had sunk beneath the pressure of disease, or the fears of nature, and left the defenceless spirit to the predominance of early associations, and to the inroads of superstitious terror. Such men are replunged into their old prejudices, exactly in the same way as he, who has thrown off the superstitions of the nursery, is overpowered, as he passes through a churchyard at midnight, by his infan tile associations. It has been somewhere remarked, that in the soaring of a bird there is a contest between its muscular power and the force of gravitation; and that, although the former always overcomes the latter, when the bird chooses to exert it, yet the force of gravity is sure to prevail in the end, and bring the wearied pinions to the ground. Thus it is with associations, which have laid firm hold of the mind in early youth, which have mixed themselves with every incident, and wound themselves round every object. The mind may frequently rise above them, discard them, despise them, and leave them at an infinite distance; but it is still held by the fine and invisible attraction of its antiquated feelings and opinions, which, whenever its vigor relaxes, draws it back into the limits from which it had burst away in the plenitude of its powers. It is worthy of remark, that there are moments when old associations are revived with peculiar vividness by very trivial circumstances. A noble author has described such moments with his usual felicity, in the two following What he so happily says of sorrowful emotions, may be extended, with little qualification, to almost every passion of the human breast. stanzas. But ever and anon of griefs subdued There comes a token like a scorpion's sting, A tone of music-summer's eve-or spring, A flower-the wind-the ocean-which shall wound, And how, and why we know not, nor can trace But feel the shock renewed, nor can efface The blight and blackening which it leaves behind, When least we deem of such, calls up to view The spectres whom no exorcism can bind, 'The cold-the changed-perchance the dead-anew, The mourned, the loved, the lost-too many! yet how few! It is in general very difficult, and even impracticable, to recal at will the peculiar emotions which have affect ed us at some distant period of life; because though we may remember the circumstances wherein we were placed, they no longer operate on our sensibility in the same way. We may recollect our joy cr our sorrow, but we cannot reproduce in ourselves the same affections. What, however, we are unable purposely to effect, is frequently accomplished by a few touches on the harpsichord, by the fragrance of a flower, or the song of a bird. These simple instruments have the power of awakening "emotions which have been dormant for years, and calling up the images, the impressions, the associations of some almost forgotten moment of past life, with all the vividness which they originally possessed. Our recollection seizes from oblivion the very hue which every thing then wore around us. Our heart catches the very tone which then impressed it. ovated feeling rescues one spot from the surrounding darkness of the past. A sudden gleam of ren To return from this digression: the effect, which we before attempted to describe, seems to spring from the power of the passion to engross and concentrate our attention to its objects, and by necessary consequence to withdraw it from all others. The passion is strongly associated with certain ideas or circumstances; when those ideas or circumstances are presented to the mind the passion is roused, and when roused absorbs the attention, to the inevitable exclusion of sober and rational views.* *The effect of prevailing passion (however excited) is not ill described by the pen of a celebrated female writer of the present day "Under the influence of any passion the perception of pain and |