20 ANATOMY AND PHYSIOLOGY. 



one among all those evanescent legions to our sight. Yet so judi- 

 ciously are the olfactory nets spread, that they catch the roaming 

 perfumes which emanate from the opening flower, and absorb the 

 stationed sweets which envelope the expanded rose. They imbibe 

 all the balmy fragrance of spring, all the aromatic exhalations of 

 autumn, and enable us to banquet on the invisible dainties of 

 nature. 



By taste, the food that supports our body, feasts our palate ; first 

 treats us with a regale, then distributes its beneficial recruits. The 

 saliva flowing upon the tongue, and moistening its nerves, quickens 

 them into the liveliest acts of sensation. Temperance sets the 

 finest edge on its faculties, and adds the most poignant relish to its 

 enjoyments. These senses are not only so many sources of delight, 

 but a joint security for our health. They are vigilant and active 

 inspectors. 



To render the whole complete is added feeling : while other 

 senses have a particular place of residence, this is diffused through 

 the whole body, and is peculiarly fine at the extremities. Our 

 feeling is finely tempered between the extremes ; neither so acute 

 as in the eye,' nor so obtuse as in the heel ; for the one would pro- 

 duce continual pain, and the other would quite benumb the body, 

 and almost annihilate the touch. Indeed all our senses are most 

 precisely fitted to our exigencies ; were any strained higher, they 

 would be the avenues of anguish ; were they relaxed into greater 

 insensibility, they would be useless incumbrances. 



The taste, touch, and smell, are straitened in their operations, 

 and perceive nothing but what is brought to their very doors. The 

 ear, indeed, has a larger circle of objects ; but the sight most amply 

 supplies whatever is wanting in the others, spreading itself into an 

 infinite number of bodies, and bringing to our notice some of the 

 remotest parts of the universe. 



The eye extends its observations as far as the orbit of the Geor- 

 gium Sidus ; nay, glances at an instant of time to the inconceivable 

 distance of the stars 



" O'er all surrounding things that curious rove ; 

 .That loves the sky, uplifts its look sublime, 

 The stars peruses, and can clearly read, 

 In nature's various volume round it spread 

 In radiant letters writ, the Name Divine." 



FAWCET. 



But the crowning gift, which improves the satisfaction, and 

 augments the beneficial effects accruing from all the senses, is 



