256 STUDIES OF NATURE. 



*' is become as one of us, to know good and evil.'- 

 He fliall not, therefore, " put forth his hand, 

 " and take alfo of the tree of lifejand eat, and live 

 " for ever." What literary, political, and religious 

 fquabbles have our pretended Sciences excited ! 

 How many men has (he prevented from living 

 even a fmgle day 1 



The fublime genius and the pure fpirit of Nezv- 

 ion, affuredly, could not have ftood flill at the 

 boundary prefcribed to a vulgar mind. On ob- 

 ferving the clouds reforting from every quarter to 

 the mountains which feparate Italy from the reft of 

 Europe, he would have inferred the attra6lion of 

 their fummits, and the diredion of their chains, 

 conformably to the bafons of the Seas, and to the 

 courfes of the winds : he would thence have in- 

 ferred equivalent difpofitions for the different fum- 

 mits of the Continent and of the Iflands : he would 

 have feen the vapours arifing out of the bofom of 

 the Seas of America, and conveying, through the 

 air, fecundity to the centre of Europe, fixing them- 

 felves in folid ice on the lofty pinnacles of the 

 rocks, in order to cool the Atmofphere of hot 

 countries ; undergoing new combinations, to pro- 

 duce new effe61:s ; and returning in a fluid ftate, 

 to wafli their former Ihores, diffufing, in their myf- 

 terious progrefs, unlimited abundance, in a thou- 

 fand different channels. He would have obferved, 



with 



