110 EXCURSIONS ROUND LOrCDO.V, 



idea of the innumerable blessings we derive 

 from society, let us pause for a moment, and 

 reflect on the wretched state to which man 

 would be reduced, were he suddenly depriv- 

 ed of the assistance and society of his fel- 

 low-beings, and of all those elegant and 

 useful inventions, which tend to meliorate 

 our condition. If miserable would be the 

 lot of the peasant in such a situation, whose 

 wants are few arid confined to the simple 

 necessaries of life, to what a superlative state 

 of wretchedness would the child of luxury 

 be reduced, the gratification of whose arti- 

 ficial desires requires the united industry of 

 so many of his fellow creatures. 



How astonishing is it to behold man, whose 

 vision is limited to such narrow bounds, 

 scanning the most distant limits of the fir- 

 mament by the aid of the telescope, and 

 penetrating, so to speak, to the boundaries 

 of nothingness, by means of the microscope ? 

 Can we rvoid beins: struck with wonder and 



o 



admiration at beholding that being whom 



Nature 



