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Show 38 WHY W.E I'ORGE'f. often do, think ourselves ont of thought and the power of thinking, is a very import~1~t matter, and one \vhich shows, perhaps more stnlungly t~an any other, the value and necessity of observ~t::.on, _not only for making us ready and successful. m actwn, but for making us ready an~l profom~d In ~bought. It is therefore worthy of a little cm~s1dcratwn; _and it is the more so that it is not much, rf at all, noticed in the common books, which profess to scllo~l us in 1he most useful of all arts-the art of makmg the best use of our faculties. Why do we lose the memory ~f our thoughts in sleep 1 The commo!l answ~r IS, Because w~ are asleep;" but though in most n_Istances.that. satisfies us, it does not satisfy the questiOn: It 1s an Hlentlcal proposition, the two parts of wh:ch have the same meanincr thoucrh the words are d1fferent; and such proposifi'ons gi~e us no knowled~e, though they ?eceive us with the appearance of I.t .. If the questiOn were "How does a man get on h1s JOUrney by walk~ incr 1'; and the answer were," Just because he walks," th~t would be just as much (that is, as little) to the purpose as the former. But when we consider that we lose the memory of our thoughts when we are awake, not only occa~ sionally, but (perhaps in all men) more frequently than we retain it; and that we can pass through tho day-dream of revery into a state of as utter forgetfulness both of sensation and of thought, while we are to appearance wide awake and walking on onr feet, as when we are in the most profound and \Illbroken sleep; we cannot believe that sleep is tbe cause of forgetfulness. Sleep-walking is so very like profound revery during a day-walk, that one cmt hardly tell the one from the other. Indeed the revery may be the more "oblivious" state of the two; because in it the motions of the limbs are purposeless, and the "absent man," as we not improperly call him, falls into ditches, and nms his hei:l'l ~tgain s t TIIOUCIIT. 39 posts; ';her~as the. sle~p-w.alker keeps his footing and makes Ins warm Sltuatwns where he would not venture, or venturmg would fall, if wide awake. . Thus ~he fact ?f remembering has nothino- to do e1ther ·wit~ sleepmg or waking; for it may be present or ah~cllt .m both states; ano the probability is, that we tlunk JUSt as much in nn hour of the most dreamless sleep ~s we do when we are 'vide awake for an hour. As little does the fact of remembering depend ?11 the mere thoucrht-the "act of the mind" in think~ ug, ~or t~mt is to? ai1y a nothing for the most lively 1magmatron .to B"lV~ 1t "a local habitation,'~ though we all can give .1t '·a name," and "the sign" of that na~e can be wnttcn, and all can know it if they will. It I.s not very probable that when the author of" The ReJec.te.d ~ddresses" wasted his own wits in that most n~1m~tabl~ of all imitations, he had any intention of de~lu~g m phil.osophy; but so philosophic is genins, ~ven m Its sporti_ve m~ments, that the most ludicrous form of expresswn Will n~t hide the sterling sense; and we. ne~er laugh happily and heartily unless at that whic~ IS f~ll of m~amng. In pushing the parody o~ Byron s philosophical but somewhat conceited misanthropy, to an absurdity, Smith says, "Thinking is but an idle \•.rastc of thought;" 1 but th~t, i~stead ~f. being even an approach to an 1 absurd1ty, Is. a positive and practical truth, and one , of the ~ost Important that ever was uttered. If we do nothmg further than think, then how fast soever the thoughts may arise, how profound or acute soever they m?-y be in themselves, and how valuable soevPr they m~ght be ren.dered in their applications, if they were n~~tly applied, they pass into utter oblivion the ?bh vwn ~f annihilation-a waste into which n~thmg matenal could pass but by the command of Hlln who made it. · . A_nd how can it be otherwise 1 For what, after ~tll, 1s the act of thou-'4ht ~ It is not a thing or being |