lO STUDIES OF NATURE. 



on the extremity of one of it's prickles, an Ocean 

 without a fhore , evaporated into air, a vaft aerial 

 Sea. They muft, therefore, fee fluids afcending, 

 inftead of falling ; affuming a globular form, in- 

 ftead of finking to a level; and mounting into the 

 air, inftead of obeying the power of gravity. 



Their ignorance muft be as wonderful as their 

 knowledge. As they have a thorough acquaint- 

 ance with the harmony of only the minuteft ob- 

 jets, that of vaft objeds muft efcape them. They 

 know not, undoubtedly, that there are men, and, 

 among thefe, learned men, who know every thing, 

 who can explain every thing, who, tranfient like 

 ihemfelves, plunge into an infinity on the afcending 

 fcale, in which they are loft; whereas they, in vir- 

 tue of their littlenefs, are acquainted with an op- 

 pofite infinity, in the laft divifions of time and 

 matter. 



In thefe ephemerous beings, we muft find the 

 youth of a fingle morning, and the decrepitude of 

 one day. If they poflefs hiftorical monuments, 

 they muft have their months, years, ages, epochs, 

 proportioned to the duration of a flower; they 

 muft have a chronology different from ours, as 

 their hydraulics and optics muft differ. Thus, in 

 proportion as Man brings the elements of Nature 

 near him^ the principles of his Science difappear. 



Such, 



