Quote
"I shall not preach up the idle doctrine of sympathies and instinctive attachments..."
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Keywords
Having set my face against other superstitions, I shall not preach up the idle doctrine of sympathies and instinctive attachments: but there is certainly a kind of mental attraction, by which dispositions that assimilate, like the correspondent particles of matter, have a tendency to adhere whenever they are brought within the sphere of mutual action. This, I was happy to find, was the case in the present instance: for no sooner was Ambulator enabled (by the assistance of the light which the moon was so liberally diffusing over the landscape) to recollect the features of my face, than, throwing open the door of the chaise, he sprung forward to meet me with all the gratifying cordiality of a settled friendſhip.
Sources
John Thelwall, The peripatetic; or, Sketches of the heart, of nature and society; in a series of politico-sentimental journals, in verse and prose, of the eccentric excursions of Sylvanus Theophrastus [pseud.]; supposed to be written by himself... [London] Printed for the author, 1793, p. 83. Transcription by Alain Kerhervé. Full text at Hathitrust.