SECTION III. 



NATURE AND MANAGEMENT OF THE SENSES. 



VERY little preparation is necessary for observing 

 nature, because we are all formed for that express 

 purpose ; and, instead of it costing us any effort 

 to observe, our powers of observation torture us 

 with listlessness and ennui if we shut them up idly, 

 and will not suffer them to instruct us. Still, all 

 those powers are capable of improvement '; and the 

 beauty of the matter is, that the exercise and the 

 improvement are exactly the same. No sense of 

 the body is in a state fit for accurate observation 

 unless the body generally be in a state of health ; 

 an excess of any kind renders the hand tremulous, 

 the eye dim, the ear either dull or painfully sensi- 

 tive, and nothing is fragrant to the smell or plea- 

 sant to the taste. Those who commit excesses, 

 get their punishment in this way ; and a severe 

 punishment it is. We are accustomed to say of 

 those who are in such a state, that they are " half 

 dead;" and the expression is very correct; for 

 each sense may be diminished to a half, or even 

 to a smaller fraction of its healthful quantity ; and 

 thus the person who is in that unfortunate condi- 

 tion is literally dead to the full measure of the 

 deficiency. No matter what the excess consists 

 in ; for though various kinds of excess have dif- 

 ferent effects, and the effects of some are more 

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