The National Register.
London, England, 1816-04-15 00:00:00

ri)m),J/04.

No. 431.—V0L. IX.

ON EASTER.

THE principle of the association of ideas is strong in
the human mind. By it, when one thought in a series
that has formerly commanded our attention is recalled,
the whole train is again brought under our review, at-
tended with corresponding affections, feelings, or emo-
tions. If, after a long absence, we return to visit the
spot where we irst drew our breath, or passed the days
of our infancy and childhood, or if we find our imagina-
tions led to such a scene by accidental circumstances,
our memory runs over the whole transactions of our
youthful days, peoples the place with our youthful com-
panions, and nets over again our youthful sports and
amusements. From this principle it results, that the
book presented us as a memorandum by a friend, though
at a great distance in time or place, recalls his features,
his actions, or his merits ; that the sight of a house where
an acquaintance or a relation resides, excites in our minds
thejimn;e of the family group by which it is inhabited; and
that the spot where a celebthed event occurred recalls
the 'arennestances with' whielt it was accompanied, and
renews the feelings which it is calculated to inspire.
Hence it happens, that Rome is more interesting to the
scholar than Paris, and that Jerusalem is more interest-
ing to the Christian than either;—hence is flapper's
that the rubbish of Athens excites grander fleas then
the architectural symmetry of other cities;—and heree it
happens that the Tiber, though an insigni3cant stream
in comparison with the Don or the Wolga. oceu
,;ies a
larger space in the imagination of all those asquainted
with the revolutions of empire. That scholar must have
a narrow capacity or unsusceptible feelings, whose ima-
gination could remain unexcited on the site olCicero's ,
or beside the tomb of Virgil; and that Entiliahman would
have no reason to boast of his sympathy m his country's
feelings, who did not experience a glow or pride mini
patriotism on the field of Cressy or 'Waterloo. Without
pursuing these illustrations any further, it may be re..
marked, that individuals, states, and religions, have
grafted upon this associating principle of our nature, many
of those customs and institutions that diversify the pe-
riods of our existence, and render the recurrence of days,
months, and years, something more than the revolution
of mere divisions of time, or a bare calendar of the changes
of the heavenly bodies. Hence we view particular sea-
sons, not as distinguished by bad or good weather, not
us being bleed for a longer or a shorter period with the
light of the sun, but as being the remembrancers of im-
portant events—the chronicle of our fortunes or our hap-
piness. Hence, among individuals, the obscreance of the
anniversary of their births or their marriages—hence, in
states, the attention paid to the periodical returns of sea-
sons distinguished for revolutions or remarkable events
in their own history, cr the history of their sovereigns ;
and hence, in religion, the origin of fasts and festivals.
The Muhometan system, taking advantage of this pro-
pensity and habit of the human mind, has connected the
origin of the Mnssulman era with the flight of the Pro-
phet, has ordered all the faithful to pray with their faces
, turned to the city in which he was born, and ordained a
pilierimage once in their lives to Mecca, to invigorate
their piety in the temple consecrated by his presence and
devotions. The most renuirknble events in the history
of the Jews were likewise recalled to them by their ca-
lendar and by rites to be peritxlically performed. Hence
the feast of the Passover commemorated their deliverance
from Egyptian bondage, and a few simple ceremo-
miss and institutions excited annually through suc-
cessive generations, all the piety and gratitude whi4ll
the original objects of such a providential interfiet-
ence mast have experienced. Christianity, as it has
availed itself of many of the innocent propensities of our
nature to promote our spiritual improvement, has not
disdained the powerful principle of association among its
ways and means of warming our feeling', and influencing
our cand act. The most interesting event in the history
of its Launder—those events chiefly calculated to furnish
the '4; thject of oar most improving moral ketleetions, such
as his birth, his death, his resurrection, are all written on
the wheels of revolving time, and with the recurrence of
particular days or seasons, are presented to the mind
along with the feeling:4 they arc calculated to excite.
The return of the Sabbath recalls weekly the remem-
brance of his resurrection from the dead, and renews the
hones o"oar own. The appearance of Christmas reminds
us of the circumstance; in which he ensue into the world,
and the purpose which his mission was intended to stall:.