99 



wards certain objects. These are admirable instjni- 

 inents set to work by the wise AUTHOR of our nature, 

 which, like favourable winds, cause the animated ma- 

 chines to float on the ocean of sensible objects ! 



The re-action of the soul on the nervous system, seems 

 also to be the principal source of divers sensations we 

 experience, several of which come under the denomina- 

 tion of instinct or moral sense. 



Objects do not strike immediately on the soul : she 

 only receives impressions by interposed mediums ; the 

 senses are the mediums. The action of objects then is 

 modified by them in a determinate relation to nature, 

 or to the constitution of each medium. The aptness, 

 either greater or less, wherewith sensible fibres yield 

 to impressions from without, transmit them to the 

 soul, and renew the remembrance of them there, to- 

 gether with the quality and abundance of the hu- 

 mours constitutes the temper. In amimals, temper go- 

 verns all : in man, reason regulates the temper ,* and 

 the temper, when under due regulation, facilitates, in 

 its turn, the exercise of reason. 



The passions receive nourishment, grow, and become 

 strong, like the fibres which are the seat of them. 

 Learn then your temper ; if it be vicious you are to cor- 

 rect it, not to destroy it ; for you would thereby de- 

 stroy the machine itself; but skilfully to divert its 

 course, and carefully to avoid every thing that may con- 

 tribute to add new strength to it, and swell the waters 

 of such a dangerous torrent. 



3. The senses are not only intended to raise in the 

 soul perceptions of every kind, they likewise revive me- 

 mory in her. A perception which is present to the me- 

 mory does not essentially differ from that which the ob- 

 ject excites. This produces perception by means of 

 sensible fibres appropriated to it, and on which its 

 action is displayed. The recollection of perception then 

 depends on a motion which operates in these fibres, in- 



VOL, iv. F 



