2 STUDIES OF NATURE. 



thus to exprefs myfelf, the body of our intelîï- 

 gence. 1 confider the mind, then, as an intellec- 

 tual eye, to which may be referred the other facul- 

 ties of the underftanding, as the mûginationj 'wh.ich 

 apprehends things future ; memory, which contem- 

 plates things that are paftj and Judgment, which 

 difcerns their correfpondencies. The impreflion 

 made upon us by thefe different adls of vifion, 

 fometimes excites in us a fentiment which is de- 

 nominated evidence ; and in that cafe, this laft per- 

 ception belongs immediately to the foul ; of this 

 we are made fenfible by the delicious emotion 

 which it fuddenly excites in us ; but, raifed to 

 that, it is no longer in the province of mind ; be- 

 caufe, when we begin to feel, we ceafe to reafon; 

 it is no longer vifion, it is enjoyment. 



As our education and our manners dired us to- 

 ward our perfonal intereft, hence it comes to pafs, 

 that the mind employs itfelf only about focial con- 

 formities, and that reafon, after all, is nothing 

 more than the intereft of our paffions ; but the 

 foul, left to itfelf, is inceffantly purfuing the con- 

 formities of Nature, and our fentiment is always 

 the intereft of Mankind. 



Thus, I repeat it, mind is the perception of the 

 Laws of Society, and fentiment is the perception 

 of the Laws of Nature. Thofe who difplay to us 



the 



