SHOEING. 153 



pared ? It dries, feparates, and fcales away." 

 In concife reply to this fublime juflification, 

 and very Jt?7iplc explanation, I ihould, in any 

 converfation with the writer, if he had not 

 pafTed '* that bourne from whence no travel- 

 ler returns,'* have folicited a greater degree 

 of candour in his opinion : v/hether the nails 

 were not furnifhed to our ov/n frames by the 

 '' wifdom of the Creator as a natural and 

 proper defence" to parts of the moft exqur- 

 fite fenfibility ? And Vv^hether the exuberant 

 fuperflux in conftant growth was never to 

 be reduced to the ftandard of mediocrity, till 

 every individual of the human fpecies became 

 a voluntary Nebuchadnezzar ; becaufe, upon 

 the opinions of La Fosse, Osmer, and 

 others, it would be the greateft prefumption 

 to fuppofe ** the divine Artift" had left any 

 part of his works the lead room for rc6lifi- 

 cation ? 



We might certainly introduce with pro- 

 priety, a fucctfiion of fimilies perfectly in 

 point to render the idea ridiculous ; refifting, 

 however, the great temptatiori to anim.advert 

 upon palpable abfurdities, we come to the 



proof 



