OF NATURE LAID OPEN. 



entertainments of refined conversation. When Cle- 

 ora tunes her song, or the nightingale imitates her 

 enchanting voice ; when wisdom takes its seat on 

 Mitio's tongue, and flows in perspicuous periods 

 and instructive truths amidst the chosen circle of his 

 acquaintance ; when benevolence, associated with 

 persuasion, dw r ell on Nicander's lips, and plead the 

 cause of injured innocence or oppressed virtue;- 

 when goodness, leagued with happiness, accompany 

 Eusebius into the pulpit, and reclaim the libertine 

 from the slavery of his vices; disengage the infidel 

 from the fascination of his prejudices ; and so affec- 

 tionately, so pathetically, iftvite the whole audience 

 to partake the unequalled joys of pure religion in 

 all these cases the air distributes every musical vari- 

 ation with the utmost exactness, and delivers the 

 speaker's message with the most punctual fidelity " 

 The air is also made highly subservient to the sense 

 of smelling. " It undertakes (says the same author) 

 to convey to our nostrils the extremely subtile effluvia 

 which transpire from odoriferous bodies. Those de- 

 tached particles are so imperceptibly small that they 

 would elude the most careful hand, or escape the 

 nicest eye; but this trusty depository receives and 

 escorts the invisible vagrants without losing so much 

 as a single atom, entertaining us, by this means, with 

 the delightful sensations which arise from the fra- 

 grance of flowers ; and admonishing us, by the trans- 

 mission of offensive smells, to withdraw from an un- 

 wholesome situation, or beware of pernicious food. 7 ' 



