THEIR DURATION. 51 



And the pleasure goes deeper strikes more 

 home cleaves more closely remains more per- 

 manently than can be supposed of the external 

 organ of sense. So exquisite and at the same 

 time so mysterious an action is life, that it does 

 not appear that the same particle of matter can 

 abide with it for two moments of time that can be 

 separated, or considered as a succession even in 

 thought. It is probable that the same material 

 eye never sees two successive objects; that the 

 same olfactory surface never conveys two succes- 

 sive odours; that the same material ear never hears 

 too successive sounds; and that the same sentient 

 palate never tastes, or the same sentient finger 

 touches, twice. It is probable that they perform their 

 offices and are gone dissipated into the thin air, 

 or absorbed by those vessels which, ramified all 

 over the body, collect the waste from every part ; 

 and by one of the most beautiful processes in na- 

 ture, constantly remove death out of the body, 

 while the equally wonderful system of nutrition is 

 at the same time every where furnishing the 

 materials of life. 



But although those individual portions of mat- 

 ter are far too minute for the cognizance of any 

 eye or of any microscope; and though, as compos- 

 ing our organs of observation, they are more 

 fleeting than observation itself, yet they are faith- 

 ful to the mind, and their memory never pe- 

 rishes. 



This is an exceedingly curious as well as an 

 exceedingly interesting speculation ; and, even if 

 we had no more, it alone would be sufficient to 

 make us happy. The matter which thus passes 

 from death to death through life, and is not a 



F2 



