itself to our senses; it operates upon the mind with an influence, which
imitates an immediate impression. The thinking on any object readily
transports the mind to what is contiguous; but it is only the actual
presence of an object, that transports it with a superior vivacity. When
I am a few miles from home, whatever relates to it touches me more
nearly than when I am two hundred leagues distant; though even at that
distance the reflecting on any thing in the neighbourhood of my friends
or family naturally produces an idea of them. But as in this latter
case, both the objects of the mind are ideas; notwithstanding there is
an easy transition between them; that transition alone is not able to
give a superior vivacity to any of the ideas, for want of some immediate
impression[8].

[8] 'Naturane nobis, inquit, datum dicam, an errore quodam, ut,
cum ea loca videamus, in quibus memoria dignos viros
acceperimus multum esse versatos, magis moveamur, quam siquando
eorum ipsorum aut facta audiamus aut scriptum aliquod legamus?
Velut ego nunc moveor. Venit enim mihi Plato in mentem, quera
accepimus primum hic disputare solitum: cuius etiam illi
hortuli propinqui non memoriam solum mihi afferunt, sed ipsum
videntur in conspectu meo hic ponere. Hic Speusippus, hic
Xenocrates, hic eius auditor Polemo; cuius ipsa illa sessio
fuit, quam videmus. Equidem etiam curiam nostram, Hostiliam
dico, non hanc novam, quae mihi minor esse videtur postquam est
maior, solebam intuens, Scipionem, Catonem, Laelium, nostrum
vero in primis avum cogitare. Tanta vis admonitionis est in
locis; ut non sine causa ex his memoriae deducta sit
disciplina.'

_Cicero de Finibus_. Lib. v.