OF NATURAL HISTORY. l^S 



Jimbs. Motion, befide many other advantages, gives them 

 the moft lively confcioufnefs of their own exlft;ence and pow- 

 ers. If exercife be pleafant to children, it would be ftill 

 more {o to our ftatue ; for as yet he not only knows no ob- 

 iiacle to interrupt his movements, but he will foon expe- 

 rience all the pleafures to be derived from motion. The 

 ftatue at firft loves every body that does not hurt him. Pol- 

 iihed and fmooth furfaces will be agreeable to him ; and he 

 will be delighted to find that Ixe can at pleafure enjoy 

 warmth or coolnefs. He will receive peculiar pleafure from 

 objefis, which, from their^iigure and magnitude, are moft 

 accommodated to the form of his hand. At other times, the 

 difficulty of handling obje<Sls, on account of their fize or 

 weight, will give him pleafure by furprife ; and this pleafure 

 will be augmented by the fpace he difcovers around them, 

 which will render the motion of his body from one place to 

 another extremely agreeable. Solidity and fluidity, hard- 

 nefs and foftnefs, motion and reft, will be pleafant fenfations ; 

 for the more he contrafts them, the more they will attra^l 

 his attention and extend his ideas. But the habit he acquires 

 of comparing and judging is the greateft fource of his pleafures. 

 He no longer touches obje6ls folelyfor the pleafure of hand-' 

 ling them. He wiflies to know their relations, and he feels 

 as many agreeable fenfations as he forms new ideas. 



Touching expofes him more frequently to pain than the 

 other fenfes. But pleafure is always within his reach, and 

 pain is felt only at intervals. His delires confift chiefly of 

 the efforts of his mind to recal the moft agreeable ideas. 

 But that kind of deftre of wdiich the fenfe of touch renders 

 him capable, includes motion, or the power of fearching 

 for fenfations. Hence his enjoyments arc not limited to the 

 ideas prefented by the imagination, but extend to all the ob- 

 jects he can reach j and his delires, inftead of being concen- 

 trated into modes of his exiftence, as in the other fenfes. 



