$flr STUDIES OF NATURE. 



tion. Finally, it is becaufe the greateft part of 

 our very learned produftions fludioufly (leer clear 

 of this natural fentiment, thi\t the perufal of them 

 is fo very dry and difgufling, and that pofterity 

 will prefer Herodotus to David Hiwie, and the My- 

 thology of the Greeks to all our treatifes on Phy- 

 £cs; becanfe wre love (till more to hear the fic- 

 tions of Deity blended with the Hillory of men, 

 than to fee the reafon of men in the Hiflory of 

 Deity. 



This fublime fentiment infpires Man with a 

 tafte for the marvellous, who, from his natural 

 weaknefs, muft have ever been crawling on the 

 ground, of which he is formed. It balances in 

 him the fentiment of his mifery, which attaches 

 him to the pleafures of habit ; and it exalts his 

 foul, by infufing into him continually the defire of 

 novelty. It is the harmony of human life, and 

 the fource of every thing delicious and enchanting 

 that we meet with in the progrefs of it. With 

 this it is that the illufions of love ever veil them- 

 felves, ever reprefenting the beloved objeél as 

 fomething divine. It is this which opens to am- 

 bition perfpeclives v/ithout end. A peafant ap- 

 pears deiirous of nothing in the World, but to be- 

 come the church-warden of his village. Be not 

 deceived in the man ! open to him a career with? 

 out any impediment in his way ; hç is groom, he 



becomes 



