66 SUPERIORITY OF REASON. 



without education, to their instincts, which re- 

 quire none. The young partridge of an hour is 

 firm and fleet on its legs ; some species of aphides 

 are matured even in a shorter period ; while New- 

 ton or Watt, if left to themselves at the first, 

 would have soon perished; yet Newton gauged 

 the universe, and divided the beam of the sun 

 into all its radiant colours. He did not, indeed, 

 give godhead to man, for man is man still ; but 

 he opened up a passage whereby those who pro- 

 ceed aright may approach near the footstool of the 

 throne, and admire, and worship, and learn still 

 higher knowledge, and taste still more unmingled 

 happiness. Thus, although the ear brings us no 

 direct knowledge of external things, until it has 

 been instructed, we must not slight it, or deem it 

 at all imperfect on that account ; for in proportion 

 as it is educated, it becomes the gate of wisdom ; 

 and it is rich in pleasure, and the pleasure which 

 it brings never fatigues and never cloys. Nor 

 must we forget, that the ear is the instructor of 

 the hand in those immeasurably small differences 

 of motion in the touch, by means of which skilful 

 musicians repay the ear for its labour in tones so 

 sweet, and cadences so soft and fine, that the 

 sound feels drawn out to the very verge of matter, 

 and ear and instrument are lost notice of, and 

 nought remains bat the delighting music and the 

 delighting mind. There is probably not one feeling 

 of our nature, certainly there is not one sensal 

 feeling, where we can so completely put off the 

 animal, and bring the mind unclogged to its en- 

 joyment, as in the hearing of sweet sounds. And 

 that is the reason why the pleasure which those 

 sounds produce, is so exquisite, so ready, and so 



