A RULING PASSION NARROWS THE MIND.

115

North. For it calls forth the same, day by day, nourishing it, and fixing it as habitual in the mind. Yet even in such cases it will appear at last, when some change of circumstances breaks up the bondage in which the mind has been held, that this permanent habit is broken up with it, and other strong natural principles reassume their native strength.

Shepherd. As it is richt they should do.

North. But there are arguments of a still more important kind, Mr Hogg, connected with the refutation of this theory. Shepherd. Theory! It's nae theory-it's but a bit sophistical apothegm.

North. For the fact is, that such a ruling passion is incompatible with that state of mind which ought to be desired, with its sound and healthy condition. The vigour of the mind is supported and nourished by the alternation of its passions. When exhausted with one, it recovers its force and alacrity by giving itself up to the influence of another. Its thoughts, its understanding, its whole moral nature, are filled and replenished by the variety of affections with which it is thus made acquainted. But a single passion taking possession of it, binds it down, narrows it, confines it in ignorance, destroys its moral power, by substituting one usurping affection for that whole variety of feelings which are proper to the human soul, which are its excellence, and its happiness.

Shepherd. Puir Pop! Puir bit Poppy! Why, sir, sic a ruling passion's a dounricht disease.

North. Its effect upon the mind, if it is permanent, without vehemence, is to confine it within narrower and narrower limits, to withdraw it from the natural freedom and enlargement of its being, to make it partial, servile, destitute of knowledge of itself or others. If it is permanent, and at the same time vehement, it overpowers and deranges the other faculties, and in its ultimate excess, reaches that state of entire and utter derangement, which includes even physical disorder of the structure of the human being, and becomes either imbecility or madness.

Shepherd. I could seleck a dizzen cases in pint.

North (with much animation). Is it not evident, then, Mr Tickler, that there cannot be a greater absurdity, in endeavouring to establish philosophical canons fit for the judgment of human character, than to propose as one of the fixed con

116 A RULING PASSION NO CANON OF CHARACTER.

ditions and appearances of the mind, a state which, in all its degrees, is adverse to the proper excellence and strength of that mind, and in its utmost degree is its highest disorder, and finally its destruction?

Shepherd (shaking Tickler in vain). This is real sleepthere's nae pretendin here, sir-your eloquence has owerpoor'd him, and he has taen refuge frae discomfiture in the land o' nod. (Aside)—Faith I'm gettin rather droosy mysel.

North (with increasing animation). There have at times been men of great character who have devoted themselves wholly to some great object which has occupied their thoughts and purpose for their whole life; and in some sort this might be said to be a ruling passion, since their lot was so cast that that one great desire became justly the preponderant determination of their will while they lived-such as Clarkson and Howard.

Shepherd. Wha?

North. But how unlike is this to the description of human nature by ruling passions! Even in these great men, high as their purpose was, it must be supposed that their full moral nature was in a certain degree warped by the exclusive desire with which they pursued these objects. These objects were in truth so great, that for them it was worth while to sustain, to a certain degree, such an injury of their moral nature. And it must be added, that if their minds were in some degree warped, they were in a much greater degree exalted by the dignity of their purpose.

Shepherd. Wha were they? I wush you would tell me wha they were. An anecdote or twa wad relieve the pressure on the brain o' your fine feelosophy, and lichten the lids o' ma

een.

North (with enthusiasm). But before we compare with these any of the ordinary pursuits and situations of men, let it be recollected how peculiar these situations were: that these men were contending single against the abuses and crimes of a nation, or of the world. Less than the entire life and powers of an individual human being would have been unequal to such a contest. And other instances there are no doubt more obscure, though not less virtuous, in which single men have striven, and do yet strive, against the vice and corruption of a whole generation. In all such cases, this

paramount object demands, and must have, all the powers of the mind. But only in such instances, which are necessarily rare, can the mind justly be given up to a single purpose. It is evident that extraordinary strength of character, and intensity of desire, and faculties of great vigour, are necessary to the adoption of purposes of this description. How rare such a union!

Shepherd. Go on, sir. (Aside)-0 dear me! but I wush he was dune!

North. The ruling passion, then, my dear James, you see, so far from giving any insight into its deeper composition, does, in fact, express what lies at the mere surface of character.

Shepherd. That's just what I was sayin.

North (with an air of triumph). What, I would ask, is the knowledge imparted of the real character of a man in public station, and of high rank in his country, such as Lord Cobham was, by telling us that he was a strenuous patriot? The place in which he stood, and not the urgency of his own peculiar feelings, required of him to take his part in the public affairs of his country. And who will pretend to say, that in knowing the simple fact that Lord Cobham was one of the distinguished patriots of his day, he can tell whether that patriotism arose from that ardent zeal for the welfare of human beings, which is one principle of our nature—or from a proud imaginative attachment to the majestic land of which he was the son, which is another, or from the stern independence and inflexible integrity of an upright and honourable mind placed by circumstances in the midst of public life, and thus in unavoidable opposition to what there might be of corruption and selfishness at that time in the administration of the affairs of his country?

Shepherd. Hear! hear! hear!

North (rising and resting on the crutch). These and other original grounds in the mind itself, may all, with equal probability, be supposed as the cause of the patriotism of such a man; as long as his patriotism is the only known fact of his character. In this instance, then, it is evident, that the objection I advanced is true, namely, that what is called a ruling passion, often shows merely an effect produced by the emergency of the situation in which a man is placed, rather

118

POPE'S DOCTRINE IS WORTHLESS.

than anything of the original and characteristic constitution of his mind. The utmost we can be said to know in such a case is the spirit of his conduct, but nothing of that which, in speaking of character, it is our object to understand, namely, the peculiar form under which human nature was exhibited in that individual human being, or the source from which his conduct sprung.

Shepherd (resigning himself without further struggle to sleep). OH! North (with great self-complacency). Upon this view of the subject I am induced to say, in conclusion, Mr Hogg, that it appears to me that the theory or doctrine, by whatever name we may call it, which holds up the ruling passion, as that which explains and exhibits in its strongest light the individual character, does, while it undertakes to set before our observation what is deepest in the composition of the mind, in fact mark out only what is most superficial. It shows us not in what manner the mind is framed, it shows us not the great elements of power which are joined together in its composition, neither the peculiar character nor the principles of its strength; but it directs our attention exclusively, and as if the whole of character were comprised in this, to some seeming outward form and aspect, which, under the pressure of circumstances, external and accidental, the mind has been constrained to assume.

Tickler (asleep opposite the Shepherd). OH!

North (exultingly on taking his seat). So little of real truth and instruction may there sometimes be, gentlemen, in an opinion which, under the name of philosophy, gains attention by the grace with which it is recommended to notice, and obtains something of sanction and currency by that which is its essential falsehood, namely, the substitution it makes of what is obvious to sight for that which lies most hidden from observation, and the flattering facility which it therefore seems to afford to the commonest observers and slightest reasoners, for understanding those subjects which are more than sufficient for the efforts of the most searching sagacity and the profoundest thought.

Shepherd (in his dreams). Soho! Soho! Soho! I see her een aneath the brent broo1 o' the knowe.

North (in mixed anger and amazement). Hogg?

1 Brent broo-steep brow.

NORTH'S SOPORIFIC.

119

Shepherd (starting up). Halloo! halloo! halloo! Weel dune Clavers! That's it, Giraffe! A wrench-a turn-he's mouthin her-he's gruppit her-but Clavers wunna carry-fetch her here, Giraffe-and I'll wear her fud in ma hat. But I'm sair blawn.

Tickler (in his dreams). Razor-strop not worth a curserazor like a saw-water lukewarm-soap sandy from scrubbing the stair-blast the brush!

North. A madman on my right hand, and an idiot

on my left! Shepherd (recovering his senses, and rubbing his eyes). Sae, by your ain accoont, sir, you're somethin atween the twa. Our freen Dr Macnish has speculated wi' great ingenuity on the cause o' dreams in his Philosophy of Sleep. Wull he tell me what for I was haunted by that hare, and no Mr Tickler, wha devoured her stoop and roop? Hae dreams, then, nae connection wi' the stamack?

North (drawing himself up proudly). Really I did not know, gentlemen, that my conversation had been so soporific.

Shepherd. Conversation! Ca' ye't conversation to deliver a treatise on the fause theory o' the ruling passion, a' divided intil separate heids, and argufied back and forrit again' twa peacefu' folk like me and Mr Tickler, wha never opened our mouths till we fell asleep? In place o' bein' angry you should gie us baith the maist unqualified praise. As for mysel, I stood it out langer nor ony ither man in the Forest. If you had but seen the faces I made to keep mysel wauken, you wad hae thocht me a demoniac. I keepit twitchin my upper lip, nose, and cheeks, like the Lord Chancellor.

North. What shall the world say, my dear Shepherd, is his ruling passion?

Tickler (broad awake).

"That clue once found, unravels all the rest,

The prospect clears, and Wharton stands confest!"

North. A Reform Ministry! The Lord High Chancellor of England giving himself the lie night after night on the Woolsack

Tickler. In presence of the Peers, whom he loads with insult

Shepherd. And in hearin o' the haill kintra, wha wonder that there is nae wisdom even in his wig.