Home, Henry, Lord Kames (1696-1782)

Elements of Criticism

London and Edinburgh

Printed for A. Millar, London; and A. Kincaid and J. Bell, Edinburgh

1762

"During his waking hours, amusement by intervals is requisite to unbend his mind from serious occupation."

SUCH is the nature of man, that his powers and faculties are soon blunted by exercise. The returns of sleep, suspending all activity, are not alone sufficient to preserve him in vigor. During his waking hours, amusement by intervals is requisite to unbend his mind from serious occupation. The imagination, of all our faculties the most active, and not always at rest even in sleep, contributes more than any other cause to recruit the mind and restore its vigor, by amusing us with gay and ludicrous images; and when relaxation is necessary, such amusement is much relished. But there are other sources of amusement beside the imagination. Many objects, natural as well as artificial, may be distinguished by the epithet of risible, because they raise in us a peculiar emotion expressed externally by laughter. This is a pleasant emotion; and being also mirthful, it most successfully unbends the mind and recruits the spirits. (I.vii, pp. 337-8)

Uncategorized::Unbending

ECCO-TCP

11 entries in ESTC (1762, 1763, 1765, 1769, 1772, 1774, 1785, 1788, 1795, 1796).

See Elements of Criticism, 3 vols. (Edinburgh: Printed for A. Millar, London; and A. Kincaid & J. Bell, Edinburgh, 1762). <Link to ESTC><Link to Vol. I in ECCO-TCP><Vol. II><Vol. III>

Reading Elements of Criticism, ed. Peter Jones, 2 vols. (Indianapolis: Liberty Fund, 2005). [Text based on 6th edition of 1785]

11/18/2013