ON THE GENERAL DIFFUSION OF KNOWLEDGE. 



quired only an impulse to be given in a certain 

 direction, in order to accomplish the same ends. 

 And was Humboldt more burdened and per 

 plexed, or did he feel less comfortable and happy 

 than his ignorant and grovelling associates in 

 the ship that wafted them across the ocean ? 

 No. He felt emotions of delight and intellec 

 tual enjoyments to which they were utter 

 strangers. While they were lolling on their 

 hammocks, or loitering upon deck, viewing 

 every object with a &quot;brute unconscious gaze,&quot; 

 and finding no enjoyment but in a glass of grog, 

 a train of interesting reflections, having a 

 relation to the past, the present, and the future, 

 passed through the mind of this philosopher. 

 He felt those exquisite emotions which arise 

 from perception of the beautiful and the sub 

 lime ; he looked forward to the advancement of 

 natural science as the result of his observations, 

 and beheld a display of the wisdom and gran 

 deur of the Almighty in the diversified scenes 

 through which he passed. Such observations 

 and mental employments as those to which I 

 allude, so far from distracting the mind, and un 

 fitting it for the performance of official duties, 

 would tend to prevent that languor and ennui 

 which result from mental inactivity, and would 

 afford a source of intellectual enjoyment amidst 

 the uniformity of scene, which is frequently 

 presented in the midst of the ocean. 



From the whole that has been now stated on 

 this subject, it appears, that in order to make 

 science advance with accelerated steps, and to 

 multiply the sources of mental enjoyment, we 

 have only to set the machinery of the human 

 mind (at present in a quiescent state) in mo 

 tion, and to direct its movements to those ob 

 jects which are congenial to its native dignity 

 and its high destination. The capacity of the 

 bulk of mankind for learning mechanical em 

 ployments, and for contriving and executing 

 plans of human destruction, proves that they 

 are competent to make all the researches requi 

 site for the improvement of science. The same 

 mental energies now exerted in mechanical la 

 bour and in the arts of mischief, if properly di 

 rected, and acting in unison, and accompanied 

 with a spirit of perseverance, would accomplish 

 many grand and beneficent effects, in relation 

 both to the physical and moral world, and would 

 amply compensate the occasional want of ex 

 traordinary degrees of mental vigour. Were 

 only a hundred millions of eyes and of intellects, 

 (or the tenth part of the population of our 

 globe) occasionally fixed on all the diversified 

 aspects, motions and relations of universal na 

 ture, it could not fail of being followed by the 

 most noble and interesting results, not only in 

 relation to science, but to social and moral or 

 der, and to the general melioration of mankind. 

 Were this supposition realized, our travellers, 

 merchants, and mariners, along with the pro 



duce of foreign lands, might regularly import, 

 without the least injury to their commercial in 

 terests, interesting facts, both physical and mo 

 ral, scientific observations, chymical experi 

 ments, and various other fragments of useful 

 information for rearing the Temple of Science, 

 and extending the boundaries of human know 

 ledge. 



SECTION IV. 



ON HIE PLEASURES AND ENJOYMENTS CON 

 NECTED W TH THE PURSUITS OF SCIENCE. 



MAN is a compound being : his nature con 

 sists of two essential parts, body and mine 

 Each of these parts of the human constitution 

 has its peculiar uses, and is susceptible of pe 

 culiar gratifications. The body is furnished 

 with external senses, which are both the sources 

 of pleasure and the inlets of knowledge, and 

 the Creator has furnished the universe with ob 

 jects fitted for their exercise and gratification. 

 While these pleasures are directed by the dic 

 tates of reason, ind confined within the limits 

 prescribed by the Divine law, they are so far 

 from being unlawful, that in the enjoyment of 

 them we fulfil one of the purposes for which our 

 Creator brought us into existence. But the 

 pursuit of sensitive pleasures is not the ultimate 

 end of our being ; we enjoy such gratifications 

 in common with the inferior animals ; and in so 

 far as we rest in them as our chief good, we 

 pour contempt on our intellectual nature, and 

 degrade ourselves nearly to the level of tho 

 beasts that perish. 



Man is endowed with intellectual powers, asj 

 well as with organs of sensation, with faculties? 

 of a higher order, and which admit of more va 

 ried and sublime gratifications than those which 

 the senses can produce. By these faculties we 

 are chiefly distinguished from the lower orders} 

 of animated existence ; in the proper exercise 

 and direction of them, we experience the high 

 est and most refined enjoyments of which our 

 nature is susceptible, and are gradually pre 

 pared for the employments of that immortal ex 

 istence to which we are destined. The corpo 

 real senses were bestowed chiefly in subser 

 viency to the powers of intellect, and to supply 

 materials for thought and contemplation; and 

 the pleasures peculiar to our intellectual nature, 

 rise as high above mere sensitive enjoyments, 

 as the rank of man stands in the scale of ex 

 istence, above that of the fowls of the air, or 

 the beasts of the forest. Such pleasures are 

 pure and refined ; they are congenial to the 

 character of a rational being ; they arc mora 

 permanent than mere sensiti\e enjoyments* 

 they can be enjoyed when worldiv comforts art/ 



