102 MUSCULAR FEELING. 



of the existence of any thing else. It is impossible 

 for us, by any actual division we can make, even 

 by the aid of the most powerful magnifying glasses 

 that can be made or even imagined, to arrive at 

 any knowledge of the primary atoms, beyond 

 which matter cannot be divided. But it is pro- 

 bable that the first sensation is that of a single 

 atom in the muscle ; and that, consequently, the 

 first element, or, if you will, the first material of 

 our knowledge, is the first element of matter 

 itself, that we learn by mere atoms, which we can 

 no more know, than we can remember the original 

 sensation or feeling to which they give rise. It 

 has been already noticed that the muscular action 

 of the hand, and the stronger and more healthy 

 that the hand is, it does it the more nicely, can not 

 only divide space a thousand times more minutely 

 than the naked eye, but that it can beat the eye, 

 notwithstanding all the assistance of its magnify- 

 ing glasses. And now we can see the reason : 

 The eye is a pupil ; and not only knows no more 

 than the hand or the muscles can teach it, but 

 as it knows through the medium of a second ma- 

 terial apparatus, it is a stage further removed from 

 mental perception than the muscles ; so that while 

 the muscular feeling proceeds by atoms to which 

 we can assign no measure of bulk or even of gravi- 

 tation, the eye can take cognizance only of col- 

 lections of those atoms, (the smallest most likely 

 amounting to countless millions,) which have been 

 known in their succession, and compared and 

 summed up by the mind from the action of the 

 muscles. So, our first knowledge of matter is the 

 knowledge of gravitation, and nothing but gravi- 





