47 o Vr. Barnes on the Power 



every perfon miift have experienced. For who 

 has not, for a time, forgotten the calls of appetite, 

 the fenfe of cold, or even the feelings of acuter 

 pains, when his attention has been engaged, by 

 an interefting ftory, an affeding oration, or an 

 agreeable annufennent ? Of this abfence of mind, 

 and of an inattention to bodily wants arifing 

 from it, many curious inllances are given in the 

 Life of Sir Ifaac Newton. Buried in profound 

 meditation, that great philofopher, we are told, 

 often remained for many hours together beyond 

 the regular time of fleep, and of meals, equally 

 infenfible to the demands of food, and of reft; 

 and fometimes ignorant whether he had eaten 

 or not. 



But thefe effefls are ftill more confpicuous, 

 when the mind is roufed to strong emotion : 

 for PASSIONS, of almoft every kind, produce a 

 momentary paufe of fcnfation. How many in- 

 fiances have there been, of perfons under fevere 

 fits of the gout, who, upon fome fudden alarm, 

 have entirely loft the prefent fenfe of pain, and 

 have made exertions, which, in their crippled 

 ftate, would have been thought impoffible ? I 

 cannot refift the impulfe of mentioning, to the 

 honour of a Britidi tar, the ftrong effeds which 

 the love of his country, and the fpirit of his 

 profeflion, produced upon the late gallant Ad- 

 MiiTAL Saunders. He had been for fome time 

 laid up under the extreme debility and langour, 



which 



