What then is man with respect to infinity? Who is able to comprehend it? but to present him with another kind of prodigy, as surprising as the former let him enquire into the smallest thing he knows, tha a fly for instance, should have parts in its little body incomparably more little, legs with joints, veins in those legs, blood in those veins, humours in tha blood, drops in those humours, and vapours in thos drops; and still proceeding in his divisions, let hin exhaust the whole force of his conceptions, and le the last object he can think of be the subject of ou present discourse. He will judge perhaps that this i the smallest portion of nature; but within this I wil shew him a new abyss, I will describe to him not only the visible universe, but farther, all that he is capa ble of conceiving of the immensity of nature, within the circumference of this imperceptible atom [7].

Let him take a view of the infinite number o worlds, whereof every one has its firmament, its pla nets, its earth, in the same proportion as our visibl world. In this earth, let him consider the animals, and lastly the mites, in which he will find again all that h‍ discovered in the first; the same thing being still con stantly repeated in the first without end or repose. Le him lose himself in these wonders, which are as sur prising by their minuteness, as others by their magni tude. For who can avoid standing in admiration that our body, which but a while ago was not to b perceived in the world, but was itself imperceptibl in the bosom of the whole, should now be a colossus a world, or rather an universe, in comparison of th last degree of smallness, to which we cannot attain

Let him consider himself in this manner, and h will be affrighted without doubt to see himself in manner suspended in the mass which nature has give him between the two extremes of infinity and no thing from which he is equally removed. He wil [i] M. Pascal means, that in this small part, which one would imagine was the least that could be, other parts may still be conceived,

bearing the same proportions t one another, as the parts of th visible world would do to eac other.

trembl

nothing in regard to infinity, and every thing in regard to nothing; a medium between nothing and every thing. He is alike removed from the two extremes, and his being no less distant from the nothing, from whence he was taken, than from the infinity in which he is lost. His understanding holds the same rank in the order of intelligible beings, as his body in the extent of nature, and all that it can do is to perceive some appearances in the middle of things, in an eternal despair of knowing either the beginning or the end. All things have proceeded from nothing, and are carried up to infinity. Who can follow these amazing progressions? The author of these wonders comprehends them; which only he can do.

I have quoted this long passage from M. Pascal, to shew how many solid reflections the study of nature may supply; and the case is the same with all that is taught in physics.

Is it not a laudable curiosity to examine into the nature, causes and effects of motion, the weight of the air, the cause of earthquakes, lightning and thunders?

To know the origin of rivers and fountains, is not a matter of indifference. Several are of opinion, that they proceed from the sea, which spreads itself far under ground, and then arises by imperceptible channels to the surface of the earth. Others pretend, that the rain and snows are the sole cause of rivers and fountains. The quantity of water and snow which falls in a year upon a certain determinate portion of the earth's surface has been calculated for several years together, and at the same time the water that runs in a year, for example in the Seine; and by this calculation it appears, that a third part of the water

and

and snow which falls upon the earth, is more tha sufficient to supply the fountains and rivers.

All mankind are witnesses of the eclipses of the su and moon, and it is a kind of reproach to be wholl ignorant of the cause of them. We know that th eclipses of the sun happen only because the moon which is an opaque body being placed between th earth and sun, intercepts the light which should com from the sun to the earth; and that the eclipse of th moon is occasioned only by the earth's being place directly between the moon and sun, which hinder the sun from illuminating the moon; and for th reason the eclipses of the sun never happen but whe the moon is new; and the eclipses of the moon at n time but at the full. But it is most surprising, tha they are foretold by astronomers with such exactnes that a mistake of some minutes is looked them as a considerable error.

upon b

Can any thing better deserve our attention, tha the flux and reflux of the sea? Philosophers have a most always thought, that the moon was the cause it, by compressing the intermediate air, and there the waters corresponding to it; but the relation b tween the flux and reflux of the sea, and the motio of that planet was never so well understood as in th last century. The moon takes up twelve hours ar twenty-four minutes in passing from the upper pa of our meridian to the lower; and twenty-four hou and forty-eight minutes in returning to the upper pa of our meridian again. There are also twelve hou and twenty-four minutes between the tide, which con in upon our coasts every morning, and the tide flood in the evening, and twenty-four hours and fort eight minutes between the morning tide of one da and the morning tide of the next. Several other agre ments of this kind have been likewise observed, whi are very surprising when thoroughly considered.

There is nothing certainly more wonderful in n ture, than this regular and general motion of all t

wate

the strand; "[k] hitherto shalt thou go, and no farther, and here shall thy proud waves be stayed?" Can we reasonably suffer youth to be ignorant of such wonders as these, or not instruct them in the other points treated of in physics, and which usually cake up a good part of the second year of philosophy? When this study is neglected at this time, it is seldom afterwards applied to; but instead of neglecting it hen, youth ought to be prepared for it beforehand, by being shewn it from their infancy, though in a manner suitable to their age; and this is what it remains for me to treat in the following article.

THE NATURAL PHILOSOPHY OF CHILDREN.

So I call a study of nature, which scarce requires any thing besides the eyes, and for this reason falls within the capacity of all sorts of persons, and even of children. It consists in attending to the objects, with which nature presents us, in considering them with care, and admiring their different beauties, but without searching out their secret causes, which properly belongs to the physics of the learned.

I say, that even children are capable of it, for they have eyes and do not want curiosity; they ask questions and love to be informed; and here we need only awaken and keep up in them the desire of learning and knowing, which is natural to all mankind. Besides this study, if it is to be called a study, instead of being painful and tedious, is pleasant and agreeable; it may be used as a recreation, and should usu-, ally be made a diversion: it is inconceivable how many things children are capable of if all the opportuni

ties of instructing them were laid hold of, with whi they themselves supply us.

1

A garden, a country, a palace, are all so ma books which lie open to them; but they must ha been taught and accustomed to read in them. N thing is more common amongst us, than the use bread and linen. How seldom do children know h either of them are prepared, through how many of ration and hands the corn and the flax must pass fore they are turned into bread and linen? The sa may be said of cloth, which bears no resemblance the wool whereof it is formed, any more than pa to the rags which are picked up in the streets; and w should not children be instructed in these wonder works of nature and of art, which they every make use of without reflecting upon them?

'Tis very agreeable to read in Tully's treatise of age, the elegant description which he gives of growth of corn. [] It is admirable how the seed f mented and softened by the warmth and moist of the earth, which kindly retains it in her bos sends forth at first a verdant point, which fed a nourished from the root, raises itself by degrees, a erects an hollow stalk, strengthened with knots; h the ear inclosed in a kind of case, insensibly grow it, and at last shoots forth an admirable form, fortif with bearded spikes, which serve it as a guard agai the injuries of the small birds. But to view this w der itself with our own eyes, to follow it attentiv thro' all its different changes, and pursue it till comes to perfection, is quite another spectacle.

A careful master will find in this manner, whe withal to enrich the mind of this disciple with a gr

[] Me quidem non fructus modò, sed etiam ipsius terræ vis ac natura delectat. Quæ cum gremio mollito ac subacto semen sparsum excepit.... tepefactum vapore & compressu suo diffindit, & elicit herbescentem ex eo viriditatem : quæ nixa fibris stirpium sensim ado

lescit, culmoque erecta genicu vaginis jam quasi pubescens ir ditur è quibus cum emerserit, dit frugem spici ordine structa contra avium minorum morsus nitur vallo aristarum. De Se n. 51.

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