Year: 1866

Mental philosophers give us chapters
on the perceptions and thinking powers,
and when we are in the mood we can
sit down pleasantly to metaphysical
splitting, and patiently endure the
dissecting of our inner-man for the sake
of soul-anatomy; but our moods are
irregular things, forelgn-scientifcally
speaking-to our personality as COM
monty known, and the metaphysicians
are prone to Danish the consideration
OF these from their systems. They are
after the fixed rules OF intellect, in mo-
ton or at rest. They have not time to
consider men as individuals, or to de-
scribe all those eccentricties of temper
ament called "moods." They would
have kind of mental machinery like
clockwork. Notwithstanding all this,
every man has his moods---his anoma-
lous days or hours. He can not help it.
He may yield himself captive TO them
as gracefully as he pleases, but he is a
captive still. The psychologist may
work away at his Technology while
terms descriptive of the phases of Or
dinary life will spring up in popular ex-
preston, and are easily and generally
understood. Such term, in common
use, is mood. One day, reader, your
mind is all aglow in agiven purSap and
another day the same pursuit, in almost
the same circumstances as it seems to
you, yields no enjoyment. The only
reason you assign is that one day you
are in the mood for enjoyment, and an
other day you are not You do not Of
fer this as the prime reason, but you
suppose that the popular term you use
is more easily understood than a formal
explanation of the specific cause Of your
mental condition. To say that you are
mot welp' is another method OF saying
about the same thing; for you expect to
be understood as saying that the con-
dition of your body affects your mind
so that you do not appear in your usual
disposition: that is, when you are sick
your various moods are most transpar-
ent. The difficultyis is not that any one
fails to understand what mood is, but
there is often lack of charity toward
the moods of others. There is no such
thing as a monotone of mind; and we
may make up our minds to meet very
great variety Of men, and act accord
lngIy.


Amid the shifting scenes of human
life moods come in contact; and by
some kind of mental chemistry, we un-
derstand that one common bad mood is
often engendered. Moods are com
pounded in almost endless variety
You may he in All irresistible mood and
your friend in a dull mood: you enter
into discussion, and both are soon in an
angry moods


There seems to be a kind Of mag
natism about human souls. In some
circumstances two will mutually attract
in other circumstances they will repel
each other. There are some points OF
your best friends nature that do not CO.
incide with yours. He, undoubtedly,
can say the same thing of you. Be
careful. think of the souls magnetism
Think, that of all the souls in the uni
verse, each has a distinct individuality
each has ats peculiar mode Of thought, each
it's peculiar life-associations. No two
have travelled exactly the same path in
life-their "reminiscences donot exactly
correspond. Each has his moodS-his
phases of being. The saying of an an
cient writer, @My friend is my other
SOUL" is truly poetic, but not philisoph
cally true. It's scarcely just definition