invites, us to a state of being in the last degree new, strange 

 and inscrutable. 



This change, awful and mysterious as it is, differs but in 

 degree from MaMve have all experienced, but the recollec- 

 tion of which we are not permitted to retain. Perhaps the 

 infant, satisfied with the mere sense of existence, would, if 

 endued with the power of volition, be as unwilling to burst 

 from the confinement and darkness of the womb, though to 

 enjoy the delights of his destined residence, as the departing 

 ^pirit'to enter upon that scene for which it is, perhaps, no 

 less suitably provided by nature. Each may cling* with 

 equal obstinacy to its chains and its dungeon ; ignorant of 

 its dormant faculties, and incapable of conjecturing its fu- 

 ture perceptions and enjoyments, submissive only to the in- 

 fluence of habit and averse to the desire of unexperienced 

 felicity. 



When we say that these principles are interwoven with the 

 first rudiments of our nature, it is implied that like the other 

 affections they must be gradually developed ; and it would 

 be superfluous to remark that an action must be performed 

 more than once before it becomes a habit; or that we must 

 be acquainted with more objects than one before the love of 

 novelty can operate. The propensity is not less an original 

 law of our frame, because it must necessarily be dormant till 

 roused by appropriate occasions. It wil| therefore be curious 

 to trace the first movements of these principles in the mind. 



