476 THE SENSORIAL FUNCTIONS. 



nature has, with such exquisite art, and with the 

 finest touches of her pencil, spread over the 

 smooth canvass of this subtle nerve ; a picture, 

 which, though scarcely occupying a space of 

 half an inch in diameter, contains the deline- 

 ation of a boundless scene of earth and sky, full 

 of all kinds of objects, some at rest, and others 

 in motion, yet all accurately represented as to 

 their forms, colours and positions, and followed 

 in all their changes, without the least inter- 

 ference, irregularity, or confusion. Every one 

 of those countless and stupendous orbs of fire, 

 whose light, after traversing immeasurable re- 

 gions of space, at length reaches our eye, is col- 

 lected on its narrow curtain into a luminous focus 

 of inconceivable minuteness ; and yet this al- 

 most infinitesimal point shall be sufficient to 

 convey to the mind, through the medium of the 

 optic nerve and brain, a knowledge of the exist- 

 ence and position of the far distant luminary, 

 from which that light has emanated. How infi- 

 nitely surpassing all the limits of our conception 

 must be the intelligence, and the power of that 

 Being, who planned and executed an instrument 

 comprising, within such limited dimensions, such 

 vast powers as the eye, of which the perceptions 

 comprehend alike the nearest and most distant 

 objects, and take cognizance at once of the most 

 minute portions of matter, and of bodies of the 

 largest magnitude ! 



