He thinks it obtains a stationary point, from whence it can never advance, occurring before the middle of life.

"When the powers of nature have attained their intended energy, they can be no more advanced.

The shrub can never become a tree.
Nothing then remains but _practice_ and _experience_; and perhaps _why they do so little may be worth inquiry_."[A] The result of this inquiry would probably lay a broader foundation for this art of the mind than we have hitherto possessed, ADAM FERGUSON has expressed himself with sublimity:--"The lustre which man casts around him, like the flame of a meteor, shines only while his motion continues; the moments of rest and of obscurity are the same." What is this art of meditation, but the power of withdrawing ourselves from the world, to view that world moving within ourselves, while we are in repose?
As the artist, by an optical instrument, reflects and concentrates the boundless landscape around him, and patiently traces all nature in that small space.
[Footnote A: I recommend the reader to turn to the whole passage, in Johnson's "Betters to Mrs.Thrale," vol.i.p.

296.] There is a government of our thoughts.

The mind of genius can be made to take a particular disposition or train of ideas.