$6z STUDIES OF NATURE. 



It is one of the great calamities of human 

 life, that in proportion as we approach the fource 

 of truth, it flies away from before us ; and that 

 when, by chance, we are able to catch fome of it's 

 fmaller ramifications, we are unable to remain 

 conftantly attached to them. Wherefore has the 

 fentiment which yefterday exalted me to Heaven, 

 at fight of a new relation of Nature — wherefore 

 has it difappeared to-day ? Archimedes did not re- 

 main always in an ecftafy, from the difcovery of 

 the relations of metals in the crown of King Hiero. 

 He after that made other difcoveries more conge- 

 nial to his mind : fuch as that of the cylinder cir- 

 cumfcribed within the fphere, which he gave di- 

 rections to have engraved on his tomb. Pythagoras 

 contemplated, at length, with indifference, the 

 fquare of the hypothenufe, for the difcovery of 

 which he had vowed, it is faid, a whole hecatomb 

 of oxen to Jupiter. I recollect that when I firft 

 became matter of the demonftration of thofe fu- 

 blime truths, I. experienced a delight almofl as 

 lively as that of the great men who were the firft 

 inventors of them. Wherefore is it extinguished ? 

 Why do I this day (land in need of novelties to 

 procure me pleafure ? The mere animal is, in this 

 refpect, happier than we are : what pleafed him 

 yefterday will likewife give him pleafure to-mor- 

 row : he fixes for himfelf a boundary, which he 



never 



