On this ground then it is natural to inquire whether any means may be employed, during the course of education, for enriching this prime faculty, and for enhancing its appliancy and energy. Now while it is admitted that a liberal education does, of itself, secure these ends to a great extent, I confidently think that much more may be effected in this particular than is often attempted. The culture of the Reason, and of the Imagination, and the training of the mind for special engagements, demand a commencement of the process to be made in the culture of the conceptive faculty.
Although not directly related to the subject of intellectual culture, I cannot altogether omit to refer to the important fact that the immediate object of the emotions and passions is, in a large proportion of instances, something which is supplied by the mind itself from the stores of its conceptions: it is around the ideas of things and persons that the deepest affections of the soul, as well as its most refined sentiments, revolve. The condition therefore of the mind, in regard to its Ideality, powerfully influences its moral state; and it may safely be said that a mind full stored with rational and agreeable materials, or, as we may say, pre-occupied, is indirectly secured against the intrusion of many dangerous tendencies ; while this same pre-occupation consists well with the activity of all the benevolent and gentle sympathies. This subject is too copious a one to be here pursued; but a passing reference to it may serve to give the greater weight to the suggestions that are to follow.
The hints I have to offer in the present chapter might be arranged under three heads, the first comprehending what relates to the means proper for giving vivacity and precision to the conceptive faculty, WHILE THE OBJECTS UPON WHICH IT IS EMPLOYED ARE ACTUALLY PRESENT: the second, including whatever bears upon its operations
