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faculties: when it is considered that the vast 

 powers of the human mind place every descrip- 

 tion of knowledge within its grasp, it might, on 

 a cursory view, appear singular that the acqui- 

 sition of knowledge should not be governed by 

 some inherent and self-acting principle, wholly 

 unconnected with, and independent of, external 

 causes. It is, however, a wise ordination that 

 the desire to acquire information should be re- 

 gulated by the progress of civilization, and that 

 incentives of some description should be actually 

 necessary to call into operation that faculty, by 

 which the human race is distinguished from the 

 brute creation. In tracing the progress of man, 

 from a savage to a social state, we find that to 

 the stimulus created by his natural wants, we 

 owe the invention of those Arts which contribute 

 to the prolongation of life and to the increase of 

 our ordinary comforts. The cultivation of litera- 

 ture and the polite arts, resulting from civilization 

 and social intercourse, has given birth to a vari- 

 ety of imaginary wants, which, although relating 

 solely to the intellectual part of man's nature, 

 equally demand supply and gratification, in 

 order to make up the full portion of that happi- 

 ness which we are capable of enjoying : these 

 self-created wants, in an advanced state of so- 

 ciety, operate as powerfully in exciting the men- 

 tal faculties though with a different result as 



