112 MUSCULAR FEELING. 



if he will but shut his eyes at the same time, so as 

 to prevent the distraction of sight from without, he 

 will find that the unseen touch is more easily and 

 more accurately performed, than that upon which 

 the eye looks, and, as we suppose, directs with the 

 most studied attention. 



Thus the gravitation of matter is not only the 

 most general property of matter, but it is the source 

 and foundation of all that we can observe or know 

 about material things ; for OUT first sensations, which 

 the mind must have before it can either compare or 

 infer, are, and can be, nothing but resistances of 

 gravitation to the action of our muscles ; and the 

 probability, nay, the certainty, is, that we feel them 

 in the weight of the muscles themselves, before we 

 can have the slightest notion of the existence of any 

 thing else. It is impossible for us, by any actual 

 division we can make, even by the aid of the most 

 powerful magnifying glasses that can be made or 

 even imagined, to arrive at any knowledge of the 

 primary atoms, beyond which matter cannot be 

 divided. But it is probable that the first sensation is 

 that of a single atom in the muscle ; and that, con- 

 sequently, the first element, or, if you will, the first 

 material of our knowledge, is the first element of 

 matter itself, that we learn by mere atoms, which 

 we can no more know than we can remember the 

 original sensation or feeling to which they give rise. 

 It has been already noticed that the muscular action 

 of the hand, and the stronger and more healthy 

 that the hand is, it does it the more nicely, can riot 

 only divide space a thousand times more minutely 

 than the naked eye, but that it can beat the eye, 

 notwithstanding all the assistance of its magnifying 

 glasses. And now we can see the reason: the 

 eye is a pupil ; and not only knows no more than 

 the hand or the muscles can teach it, but as it knows 

 through the medium of a second material apparatus, 

 it is a stage further removed from mental perception 



