CAPABILITIES OF MAN. 



lens. If it be, as I have conjectured, a perfected 

 seed, it probably is the origin of many of those mi- 

 nute mosses, that become rooted, we know not by 

 what means, upon banks, stones, barks, &c. in such 

 profusion ; but here all investigation ceases : by 

 what agency this 'fine seed has been so profusely 

 scattered, or from what source it sprang, is hidden 

 from us 9 and we can no more satisfactorily conjec- 

 ture, than we can account for those myriads of 

 blighting insects, which so suddenly infest our 

 grain, our fruits, and our plants. There is an 

 inquisition, where all human knowledge termi- 

 nates ; the bounds of nature have never been 

 defined. 



Without considering the various sources of en- 

 joyment and pleasure bestowed upon an intelligent 

 creature, what a scene of glorious display might be 

 opened to man through the agency of the eye alone! 

 Motives we must abandon, as probably they are 

 beyond our comprehensions ; but were the powers 

 of vision so enlarged or cleared as to bring to ob- 

 servation the now unknown fabrication of animate 

 and inanimate things, what astonishment would be 

 elicited ! The seeds, the pollen of plants, the capil- 

 lary vessels and channels of their several parts, with 

 their concurrent actions, the clothing of various 

 creatures, and all that host of unperceived wisdom 

 around us ! Yet probably the mind, constituted 

 as it now is, would be disturbed by the constant 

 excitement such wonders would create ; but at pre- 



