tuting our minds that they are forcibly struck with what is novel is obvious: were not our curiosity thus excited, we might ever remain in comparative ignorance.

We

43. Perceptions are greatly modified by the condition of the senses, the state of the air; and the time, place, and circumstances when, where, and under which they are derived. acquire erroneous ideas from sensation when our organs, nerves, or the brain are not in a healthy state; when we arrive at a conclusion by the application of one organ only, when the use of more than one is requisite; when, though we use each necessary organ, we do it not with due attention; and when the mediums of sensation are not in their best state (35). The reader accustomed only to the dense air of Europe can scarcely form an idea of the transparency of the atmosphere in Syria. It gives from the mountains the prospect of an amplitude and distance in this country unparalleled. There the apparent distance of all objects is so surprisingly diminished, that the eye requires a new education to enable it to overcome the impression.

44. Perception greatly varies as to readiness, correctness, and vividness, in different individuals, and in the same individual at different times. The senses may be greatly improved by accurate and constant observation. Artists perceive things which escape the notice of other persons. The deprivation of one sense, by causing greater application of other senses, ordinarily makes them more acute. In a horse that has lost an eye, though the field of vision is contracted, the other eye acquires greater energy. But we consider the same attention may be bestowed by those in the enjoyment of all their senses, and with equal success. It cannot be necessary that a man be blind for him to have the sense of touch or of hearing in great perfection. Perception is improved by attending to the connexion existing between the more obvious and the more hidden qualities of objects. A musician can tune an instrument after his hearing has become defective, more accurately than can a person with the nicest ear who has not been used to discriminate sounds. A vintner that has been in the habit of attending to the flavour of wines, though his taste is affected by age or intemperance, will distinguish their qualities better than an inexperienced person who has the nicest sensibility of taste.

45. In the use of any one sense, and of all the senses, some persons possess a more accurate and refined perception than do others. This mainly depends on the cultivation of the capacity

of each sense. Improvement of any one sense is more rapid and powerful as other senses improve simultaneously. Some minds are peculiarly active in acquiring and comparing perceptions, and forming valuable trains of thought. Such persons if not prevented by uncontrollable circumstances most distinguish themselves through life. Other minds more obtuse allow most of their sensations to escape without powerful impressions being made, and therefore do not make any great progress.

46. A grand law of the pleasures and pains of sense is that by frequent repetitions they lose their vividness. This is of great importance in connexion with our moral culture. Pleasure passes to pain by increasing its cause. "How small and how variable a boundary separates the warmth which is pleasing from the heat which pains. Thus some sensations by becoming intense not only become disagreeable, but even intolerable; other sensations which at first were disagreeable by repetition becoming pleasing. Nature by the sense of pain instantly apprizes us of what is hurtful; and, on the contrary, by agreeable sensations gently leads us to perfect our faculties. Nature has, however, limited our sensual pleasures, and all endeavours to pass her boundaries are destructive of our happiness. The real pleasures of sense are the most exquisite in those persons that have attained the greatest degree of intellectual and moral culture.

47. Though no animal has more than five senses, a great many are more sparingly endowed. The lowest tribes of animals have probably only the most limited powers of sensation. There is, however, perhaps no single sense in which man is not excelled by some member of the lower world. But though some animals surpass him in the acuteness of certain senses, none equal him in the power of perception resulting from the combined action of all the senses, and the associating power.

48. What delight do we derive from the exercise of our senses, especially in the morning of life! Nature thus winningly invites us to their improvement. At no period as in youth is the correspondence between the external world and man so rapid and so vivid. Inquisitiveness seems the very instinct of childhood. How important, then, is it that its teachers should be patient and well informed. We may observe in children the process by which many of their mental associations arise from sensations, in the way they handle objects; now putting them to their mouths, and then placing them at different distances. They are thus insensibly improving the testimony of one sense by that of

another. Nature evidently intends that in the first years of life the mind shall almost exclusively be thus occupied. But if not subsequently properly trained, it may neglect to attend to its internal state. The longer it so continues, the greater patience is required to overcome so prejudicial a habit.

49. We ought, therefore, to cultivate an active state of mind, which seeks information by every sense and from all sources. Our Lord instructed those whom he addressed by allusion to the objects and beings which surrounded them. But how small is the number of those who duly attend either to the Divine teaching within themselves, or the way in which they ought to be acted on extrinsically. Consider," says our Lord, "the lilies of the field, how they grow." (Matt. vi. 28-34.)

66

"Observe the rising lily's snowy grace,
Observe the various vegetable race;

They neither toil, nor spin, but careless grow,

Yet see how warm they blush! how bright they glow!
What regal vestments can with them compare!
What king so shining! or what queen so fair!"

"Ask now the beasts, and they shall teach thee;
And the fowls of the air, and they shall tell thee:
Or speak to the earth, and it shall teach thee:
And the fishes of the sea shall declare unto thee.
Who knoweth not in all these,

That the hand of the Lord hath wrought this?
In whose hand is the soul of every living thing,
And the breath of all mankind!"

50. A proof of harmony of design in all the works of the Creator is afforded in our being unable duly to benefit the perceptive faculties, without, at the same time, benefiting the muscular system, and the organs of circulation and digestion, from the necessity of being much in the open air. Our corporeal, intellectual, and moral powers, may thus be made to progress

simultaneously. Sensibility to the beauties of nature should be cherished, especially in young persons. For the education of these how unfit is a vast city!

51. What tongue is sufficiently eloquent to describe the gratification all our senses are capable of receiving from the right use of the bounties of heaven! What must our world have been as it came originally from the hand of God! How truly He must have seen that it was good its present state abundantly evinces (Gen. i. 12). Assuredly then may it be affirmed as to the good man,

"For him the spring

Distils her dews, and from the silken gem
Its lucid leaves unfolds: for him the hand
Of autumn tinges every fertile branch
With blooming gold, and blushes like the morn.
Each passing hour sheds tribute from her wings,
And still new beauties meet his lonely walk,
And loves unfelt attract him. Not a breeze
Flies o'er the meadow, not a cloud imbibes
The setting sun's effulgence, not a strain
From all the tenants of the warbling shade
Ascends, but whence his bosom can partake
Fresh pleasure unreprov'd."

52. To him who makes a right use of his sensitive powers nothing can be useless. Whatever is beautiful should be familiar to his imagination. He should be conversant with all that is elegantly little or awfully vast. The plants of the garden, the animals of the wood, the minerals of the earth, and the meteors of the sky, should all concur to store his mind with inexhaustible variety. Every idea is useful for the enforcement or decoration of truth. He who knows most will have the greatest power of diversifying his scenes, and of gratifying those whom he addresses with remote allusions.

53. By travel, by an enlarged acquaintance with that which is most valuable in books and in men, and by meditation, we should make the knowledge so profusely spread around us our own, and carry our discoveries beyond those of other persons, thus obtaining an extended acquaintaince with the constitution and course of things. Nature having afforded capacities to all intends they shall be cultivated. The ability to progress in knowledge, in every man that rightly employs his powers, is altogether illimit able. The philosophy, not of mind only but of the universe, is to be found within ourselves.

54. Mental philosophy requires not expensive apparatus, nor

a large library. From everything intrinsic, and everything extrinsic, that comes within the sphere of man's observation, he may at all times, in all places, and under all circumstances, with the Divine blessing, make a continual progression in virtue and happiness. That, then, which makes for men's present and everlasting welfare "is not in heaven that thou shouldest say, Who shall go up for us to heaven, and bring it unto us, that we may hear it and do it? Neither is it beyond the sea that thou shouldest say, Who shall go over the sea for us, and bring it unto us, that we may hear it and do it? But it is very nigh unto thee, in thy mouth, and in thy heart, that thou mayest do it."

"Wisdom crieth without;

She uttereth her voice in the streets :
She crieth in the chief place of concourse,
In the openings of the gates:

In the city she uttereth her words."

(See Appendix, vote 2.J

SECTION III. -SMELL.

55. This organ is acted upon by the odorous particles which proceed from external substances. Most animal and vegetable bodies while exposed to the air are continually sending forth effluvia, not only in their state of life and growth, but when decomposing. These effluvia spread far, and are inconceivably subtile. All bodies are smelled by the particles thus diffused being drawn into the nostrils with the air; there is manifest design in placing the organ of smell in the inside of that canal through which the air is continually passing.

56. Various odours have each their different degrees of strength or weakness. Frequently those that are agreeable when weakest are disagreeable when strongest. When we compare different smells together, we can perceive very few resemblances or contrarieties, or indeed relations of any kind. Most of the names we give them are particular, as the smell of a rose, of a jessamine, and the like; yet there are some general names, as sweet, musty, putrid, cadaverous, aromatic, &c.

57. The pains of smell assist us in the proper choice of food, and in avoiding noxious vapours. The constant inhaling an atmosphere loaded with so many and such dissimilar ingredients as that of a crowded city, is prejudicial to the organ of smelling. Those who live in a better atmosphere possess this sense in