ho gives his entire years to the elevated pursuits of mind, is never
unhappy because he is not in possession of an Indian opulence, for the
idea of accumulating this exotic splendour has never entered the range of
his combinations. Nature, an impartial mother, renders felicity as perfect
in the school-boy who scourges his top, as in the astronomer who regulates
his star. The thing contained can only be equal to the container; a full
glass is as full as a full bottle; and a human soul may be as much
satisfied in the lowest of human beings as in the highest.

In the progress of an individual pursuit, what philosophers call the
associating or suggesting idea is ever busied, and in its beautiful
effects genius is most deeply concerned; for besides those trains of
thought the great artist falls into during his actual composition, a
distinct habit accompanies real genius through life in the activity of his
associating idea, when not at his work; it is at all times pressing and
conducting his spontaneous thoughts, and every object which suggests them,
however apparently trivial or unconnected towards itself, making what it
wills its own, while instinctively it seems inattentive to whatever has no
tendency to its own purposes.

Many peculiar advantages attend the cultivation of one master passion or
occupation. In superior minds it is a sovereign that exiles others,
and in inferior minds it enfeebles pernicious propensities. It may render
us useful to our fellow-citizens, and it imparts the most perfect
independence to ourselves. It is observed by a great mathematician, that a
geometrician would not be unhappy in a desert.

This unity of design, with a centripetal force, draws all the rays of our
existence; and often, when accident has turned the mind firmly to one
object, it has been discovered that its occupation is another name for
happiness; for it is a mean of escaping from incongruous sensations. It
secures us from the dark vacuity of soul, as well as from the whirlwind of
ideas; reason itself is a passion, but a passion full of serenity.

It is, however, observable of those who have devoted themselves to an
individual object, that its importance is incredibly enlarged to their
sensations. Intense attention magnifies like a microscope; but it is
possible to apologise for their apparent extravagance from the
consideration, that they really observe combinations not perceived by
others of inferior application. That this pa