68 DURATION OF THE CHARMS OF NATURE. 



and ever-informing that great instructress is who 

 speaks to all the senses at one and the same instant ! 



And the pleasure goes deeper strikes more home 

 cleaves more closely remains more permanently 

 than can be supposed of the external organ of 

 sense. So exquisite and at the same time so mys- 

 terious an action is life, that it does not appear that 

 the same particle of matter can abide with it for 

 two moments of time that can be separated, or con- 

 sidered as a succession even in thought. It is prob- 

 able that the same material eye never sees two 

 successive objects ; that the same olfactory surface 

 never conveys two successive odours ; that the same 

 material ear never hears two successive sounds ; and 

 that the same sentient palate never tastes, or the 

 same sentient finger touches, twice. It is probable 

 that they perform their offices and are gone dissi- 

 pated into the thin air, or absorbed by those vessels 

 which, ramified all over the body, collect the waste 

 from every part ; and by one of the most beautiful 

 processes in nature, constantly remove death out of 

 the body, while the equally wonderful system of 

 nutrition is at the same time everywhere furnishing 

 the materials of life. 



But although those individual portions of matter 

 are far too minute for the cognizance of any eye or 

 of any miscroscope ; and though, as composing our 

 organs of observation, they are more fleeting than 

 observation itself, yet they are faithful to the mind, 

 and their memory never perishes. 



This is an exceedingly curious as well as an ex- 

 ceedingly interesting speculation ; and, even if we 

 had no more, it alone would be sufficient to make us 

 happy. The matter which thus passes from death 

 to death through life, and is not a measurable mo- 

 ment on its passage, bears upon its invisible and 

 rapid wings all the information that we receive, and 

 all the happiness that we enjoy. It delights us with 

 softness in touching, with raciness in tasting, with 



