To muse for long unwearied hours with my attention riveted to some frivolous device upon the margin, or in the typography of a book to become absorbed for the better part of a summer's day in a quaint shadow falling aslant upon the tapestry, or upon the floor to lose myself for an entire night in watching the steady flame of a lamp, or the embers of a fire to dream away whole days over the perfume of a flower to repeat monotonously some common word, until the sound, by dint of frequent repetition, ceased to convey any idea whatever to the mind to lose all sense of motion or physical existence in a state of absolute bodily quiescence long and obstinately persevered in Such were a few of the most common and least pernicious vagaries induced by a condition of the mental faculties, not, indeed, altogether unparalleled, but certainly bidding defiance to any thing like analysis or explanation.
