Transfer Mind, at fome time or other, Love or AnThoughts. ger, Fear or Grief has not so fasten'd to fome Clog, that it could not turn it felf to any other Object. I call it a Clog, for it hangs upon the Mind fo as to hinder its Vigour and Activity in the purfuit of other Contemplations, and advances it felf little or not all in the Knowledge of the thing which it fo clofely huggs and conftantly pores on. Men thus poffefs'd, are fometimes as if they were fo in the worst Sense, and lay under the power of an Inchantment. They fee not what paffes before their Eyes; hear not the audible Difcourfe of the Company; and when by any ftrong Ap plication to them they are rous'd a little, they are like Men brought to themselves from fome remote Region; whereas in truth they come no farther than their fecret Cabinet within, where they have been wholly taken up with the Puppet, which is for that time appointed for their Entertainment. The fhame that fuch Dumps caufe to well-bred People, when it carries them away from the Company, where they fhould bear a part in the Converfation, is a fufficient Argument, that it is a fault in the Conduct of our Underflanding, not to have that power over it as to make use of it to thofe Purrofes, and on thofe Occafions wherein we have need of its Affiftance, The Mind

fhould

thould be always free and ready to turn it Trans ring of felf to the variety of Objects that occur, and Thoug allow them as much Confideration as fhall for that time be thought fit. To be ingroffed: fo by one Object, as not to be prevail'd on to leave it for another that we judge fitter for our Contemplation, is to make it of no ufe to us. Did this ftate of Mind remai always fo, every one would, without fer Iple, give it the name of perfect Madne and while it does laft, at whatever intervals it returns, fuch a rotation of Thoughts about the fame Object no more carries us forwards towards the attainment of Knowledge, than getting upon a Mill horfe whilft he jogs on in his Circular Tract would carry a Man a Journey.

I grant fomething must be allow'd to legitimate Paffions, and to natural Inclinations. Every Man, befides occafional Affections, has belov'd Studies, and those the Mind will more closely stick to; but yet it is beft that it fhould be always at liberty, and under the free difpofal of the Man, to act how, and upon what he directs. This we should endeavour to obtain, unless we would be content with fuch a flaw in our Understandings, that fometimes we fhould be as it were without it, for it is very little better than fo in cafes where we cannot make K 2

ufe

Transfer ufe of it to thofe purposes we would, and which stand in present need of it.

ring of Thoughts,

But before fit Remedies can be thought on for this Disease, we must know the feveral Caufes of it, and thereby regulate the Cure, if we will hope to labour with fuccefs.

One we have already instanced in, whereof all Men that reflect have fo general a Knowledge, and fo often an Experience in themselves, that no body doubts of it. A prevailing Paffion fo pins down our Thoughts to the Object and Concern of it, that a Man paffionately in Love, cannot bring himself to think of his ordinary Affairs nor a kind Mother drooping under the lofs of a Child, is not able to bare a part as fhe was wont in the Difcourfe of the Company or Converfation of her Friends.

But though Paffion be the most obvious and general, yet it is not the only Caufe that binds up the Understanding, and confines it for the time to one Object, from which it will not be taken off.

Befides this, we may often find that the Understanding when it has a while imployed it felf upon a Subject which either Chance, or fome flight Accident, offer'd to it without the Intereft or Recommendation of any Paflion works it felf into a warmth, and by degrees gets into a Career, wherein,

ring of

like a Bowl down at Hill, it increafes its Transfermotion by going, and will not be ftop'd or Thoughts. diverted, though, when the heat is over, it fees all this earnest Application was about a triffle not worth a Thought, and all the pains imploy'd about it, loft Labour.

There is a third fort, if I mistake not, yet lower than this; 'tis a fort of Childishnefs, if I may fo fay, of the Understanding, wherein, during the fit, it plays with, and dandles fome infignificant Puppet to no end, nor with any defign at all, and yet cannot eafily be got off from it. Thus some trivial Sentence, or a fcrap of Poetry will fometimes get into Mens Heads, and make fuch a Chiming there, that there is no ftilling of it; no Peace to be obtain'd, nor Attention to any thing elfe, but this impertinent Gueft will take up the Mind and poffefs the Thoughts in fpight of all endeavours to get rid of it. Whether every one hath experimented in themselves this troublesome intrusion of some frisking Ideas which thus importune the Underftanding, and hinder it from being better imploy'd, I know not. But Perfons of very good Parts, and thofe more than one, I have heard fpeak and complain of it themfelves. The reafon I have to make this Doubt, is from what I have known in a Case something of kin to this, though much od

K 3

der,

1

Transfer- der, and that is of a fort of Visions that fome ring of Thoughts. People have lying quiet but perfectly awake in the dark, or with their Eyes fhut. It is a great variety of Faces, moft commonly very odd ones, that appear to them in train one after another; fo that having had just the fight of one, it immediately paffes away to give place to another, that the fame inftant fucceeds, and has as quick an exit as its Leader, and fo they march on in a conftant fucceffion; nor can any one of them by any endeavour be ftop'd or retained beyond the instant of its appearance, but is thruft out by its Follower, which will have its turn. Concerning this Phantaftical Phænomenon, I have talk'd with feveral People, whereof fome have been perfectly acquainted with it, and others have been fo wholly ftrangers to it, that they could hardly be brought to conceive or believe it. I knew a Lady of excellent Parts who had got paft thirty without having ever had the leaft notice of any fuch thing; fhe was fo great a Stranger to it, that when fhe heard me and another talking of it, could scarce forbear thinking we banter'd her; but sometime after drinking a large dofe of dilute Tea (as fhe was order'd by a Phyfician) going to Bed fhe told us at next meeting, that fhe had now experimented what our Difcourfe had much a do to perfuade