UNITY OF DESHiN. 571 



compared our knowledge ot" her operations, into 

 which he had himself penetrated so deeply, to that 

 of a child gathering pebbles on the sea shore. 

 Compared, indeed, with the magnitude of the uni- 

 verse, how narrow is the field of our perceptions, 

 and how far distant from any approximation to a 

 knowledge of the essence of matter, of the source 

 of its powers, or even of the ultimate configurations 

 of its parts ! How remote from all human cogni- 

 zance are the intimate properties of those impon- 

 derable agents. Light, Heat, and Electricity, which 

 pervade space, and exercise so potent a control 

 over all the bodies in nature ! Doubtless there 

 exist around us, on every side, influences of a still 

 more subtle kind, which "eye hath not seen, nor 

 ear heard," neither can it enter into the heart or 

 imagination of man to conceive. How scanty is 

 our knowledge of the mind ; how incomprehensible 

 is its connexion with the body ; how mysterious 

 are its secret springs, and inmost workings ! What 

 ineffable wonders w^ould burst upon us, were we 

 admitted to the perception of the spiritual world, 

 now encompassed by clouds impervious to mortal 

 vision ! 



The Great Author of our being, who, while he 

 has been pleased to confer on us the gift of reason, 

 has-prescribed certain limits to its powers, permits 



gave birth, by successive transformations, to all other animals now 

 existing on the globe. He believes that trilies, originally aquatic, 

 acquired by their own efforts, prompted by their desire to walk, 

 both feet and legs, fitting them for progression on the ground ; and 

 that these members, by the long continued operation of the wish to 

 fly, were transformed into wings, adapted to gratify that desire. If 

 this be philosophy, it is such as might have emanated from the college 

 of Laputa. 



