ce. It is
certain, that distance diminishes the force of every idea, and that upon
our approach to any object; though it does not discover itself to our
senses; it operates upon the mind with an influence that imitates an
immediate impression. The thinking on any object readily transports the
mind to what is contiguous; but it is only the actual presence of an
object, that transports it with a superior vivacity. When I am a few
miles from home, whatever relates to it touches me more nearly than
when I am two hundred leagues distant; though even at that distance the
reflecting on any thing in the neighbourhood of my friends and family
naturally produces an idea of them. But as in this latter case, both
the objects of the mind are ideas; notwithstanding there is an easy
transition betwixt them; that transition alone is not able to give
a superior vivacity to any of the ideas, for want of some immediate
impression. [Footnote 6.]

[Footnote 6. NATURANE NOBIS, IN QUIT, DATUM DICAM, AN ERRORE
QUODAM, UT, CUM EA LOCA VIDEAMUS, IN QUIBUS MEMORIA DIGNOS
VIROS ACCEPERIMUS MULTURN ESSE VERSATOS, MAGIS MOVEAMUR,
QUAM SIQUANDO EORUM IPSORUM AUT JACTA AUDIAMUS, AUT SCRIPTUM
ALIQUOD LEGAMUS? VELUT EGO NUNC MOVEOR. VENIT ENIM MIHI
PLATONIS IN MENTEM: QUEM ACCIPIMUS PRIMURN HIC DISPUTARE
SOLITUM: CUJUS ETIAM ILLI HORTULI PROPINQUI NON MEMORIAM
SOLUM MIHI AFFERUNT, SED IPSUM VIDENTUR IN CONSPECTU MEO HIC
PONERE. HIC SPEUSIPPUS, HIC XENOCRATES, HIC EJUS AUDITOR
POLEMO; CUJUS IPSA ILLA SESSIO FUIT, QUAM VIDEAMUS. EQUIDEM
ETIAM CURIAM NOSTRAM, HOSTILIAM DICO, NON HANC NOVAM, QUAE
MIHI MINOR ESSE VIDETUR POST QUAM EST MAJOR, SOLE BARN
INTUENS SCIPIONEM, CATONEM, LACLIUM, NOSTRUM VERO IN PRIMIS
AVUM COGITARE. TANTA VIS ADMONITIONIS INEST IN LOCIS; UT NON
SINE CAUSA EX HIS MEMORIAE DUCTA SIT DISCIPLINA. Cicero de
Finibus, lib. 5.

{"Should I, he said, "attribute to instinct or to some kind
of illusion the fact that when we see those places in which
we are told notable men spent much of their time, we are
more powerfully affected than when we hear of the exploits
of the men themselves or read something written? This is
just what is happening to me now; for I am reminded of Plato
who, we are told, was the first to make a practice of
holding discussions here. Those gardens of his near by do
not merely put me in mind o