Malcolm, James Peller: First Impressions Or Sketches from Art and Nature, Animate and Inanimate (London, 1807)

INTRODUCTION,

EvERY object, whether animate or inanimate^
posselTes that power of attraction, that the moll
indisserent observer os the works of Nature or os
Art is compelled to acknowledge an irreliitible
effect, produced by the first light, or " first:
impression" upon the mind, when directed to
such object.
First impressions are generally indelible, and
are frequently too powerful for the operations of
reason, vainly applied, to eradicate them. The
sudden effects of some disgusting or horrible event
has often proved fatal to the unhappy spec/tator;
and even Generals of tried courage have been
panick-stmck by the sirst impression of an ad-
vancing enemy ; the soldiers of an army have fled
from the same cause ; and fleets separated in con-
fulion at the distant light of their enemy's canvas.
I once heard the cries of an officer of high rank,
who had been engaged in the storming of a camp
in which many men were sacrificed in their sseep,
after he had received a mortal wound. They were
b the