16 DIFFERENT GRADATIONS OP 



perception of an invisible and spiritual essence manifesting 

 itself through these forces, whether in unfolding the flower 

 and perfecting the fruit of the food-bearing tree, or in the 

 subterranean movements which shake the ground, and the 

 tempests which agitate the atmosphere. A bond connecting 

 the outward world of sense with the inward world of thought 

 may be here perceived ; the two become unconsciously con- 

 founded, and the first germ of a philosophy of nature is 

 developed in the mind of man without the firm support of 

 observation. Amongst nations least advanced in civilisa- 

 tion, the imagination delights itself in strange and fantastic 

 creations. A predilection for the figurative influences 

 both ideas and language. Instead of examining, men con 

 tent themselves with conjecturing, dogmatising, and inter- 

 preting supposed facts which have never been observed. 

 The world of ideas and of sentiments does not reflect back 

 the image of the external world in its primitive purity. 

 That which in some regions of the earth, and among a small 

 number of individuals gifted with superior intelligence, mani- 

 fests itself as the rudiment of natural philosophy, appears 

 in other regions and among other races of mankind as 

 the result of mystic tendencies and instinctive intuitions, 

 It is in the intimate communion with external nature, and 

 the deep emotions which it inspires, that we may also trace, 

 in part, the first impulses to the deification and worship ol 

 the destroying and preserving powers of nature. At a 

 later period of human civilisation, when man, having passed 

 through different stages of intellectual development, has 

 arrived at the free enjoyment of the regulating power of 

 reflection, and has learned, as it were by a progressive enfran- 

 chisement, to separate the world of ideas from that of the 



