Address delivered in the hall of Marischal College, Aberdeen, 5th November 1835, on occasion of his installation as Lord Rector of the University ... / [John Abercrombie].

  • John Abercrombie
Date:
1835
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Address delivered in the hall of Marischal College, Aberdeen, 5th November 1835, on occasion of his installation as Lord Rector of the University ... / [John Abercrombie]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    Now, it cannot be too anxiously borne in mind, that this great attainment is, in a remarkable degree, under the influence of habit. Each step that we take in the prosecution of it will facilitate our farther pro¬ gress,—and, every day that passes over us, without making it the object of earnest attention, the acquire¬ ment becomes the more difficult and the more uncer¬ tain ;—and a period at length arrives, when no power exists in the mind capable of correcting the disorder which habit has fixed in the mental economy. The frivolous mind may then continue frivolous to the last, amusing itself with trifles, or creating for itself fictions of the fancy, no better than dreams, and as unprofit¬ able : The distorted mind may continue to the last eagerly pursuing some favourite dogma, while it is de¬ parting farther and farther from truth : And the vi¬ tiated and corrupted mind may continue to the last the slave of its impure and degrading passions. Such is the power and such the result of mental habits ;—and let us ever bear in mind how such habits are formed. They arise out of individual acts of the mind ; and we have not the means of determining what number of such acts are necessary for forming the habits,—and at what period these may acquire a mastery which shall peril the highest interests of the mind. We cannot determine how many instances of frivolity may constitute the per-
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