55^ 



matical relation, or the examination of the individual and 

 peculiar qualities of natural objects, rather than those which 

 admit of comparison with others, can have but faint concep- 

 tions of that vivid glow of feeling, which animates him who 

 has beai principally conversant with more elegant and refined 

 pursuits. That entlmsiastic emotion which the latter de- 

 lights to indulge in is a stranger to the breast of the mathe- 

 matician, and if it sliould occasionally intrude, it is treated 

 with suspicion, and considered, perhaps, dangerous, cer- 

 tainly unnecessary and extravagant.' In the works of the 

 more eminent poets and orators, we occasionally find those 

 noble darings of the soul, which are subject to no critical 

 control ; they acknowledge no judge but the fervid spirit that 

 gave them birth, and elude the force of those laws which 

 compress the more terrestrial particles of composition into 

 system and subordination, but are insuflScient to restrain the 

 aerial subtlety of the " divinae particula auras." He who 

 wishes to scrutinise such passages with metaphysical accu- 

 racy may pronounce them contrary to the dictates of sove- 

 reign reason; but though he thinks himself justified in ex- 

 pressing partial disapprobation at the indiscretion of temerity, 

 evinced in the attempt, he cannot refuse, like the Lacede- 

 monians of old, the tribute due to transcendent prowess and 

 distinguished success. Such efforts no preparatory disci- 

 pline can enable us to make ; such fruits no cultivation can 

 bring forth, they must be tlie spontaneous offerings of a lux-- 

 uriant soil, and in a cold climate would decay even in th& 



/ 



