O F P U B E R T Y. 409 



thefe powers, by attending to their cfTedls, they 

 have been treated as ideal exiftences ; they have 

 ceafed to be the objeds of philofophical re- 

 fearch. They have at laft reaflumed their native 

 importance in the laws of gravitation, in elec- 

 tive attradlions, in the phaenomena of eledri- 

 city, &c. But, notwithftanding the evidence 

 and imiverfality of their exiftence, as their ac- 

 tion is internal, as they are folely objecils of rea- 

 fon, and have little connexion with the fenfes, 

 tliey are in danger of efcaping our obfervation, 

 and we admit them with difficulty ; for judg- 

 ment is generally occupied and directed by ex- 

 ternal objet^s. We never imagine that the in- 

 ternal conflitution of animated beings ought to 

 be a principal obje»ft of inquiry. We conceive 

 that the human genius is limited to external 

 objeds ; and, therefore, we overlook every tiling 

 that might lead to a more refined and fpiritual 

 philofophy. 



The ancients, lefs limited in genius, and pof- 

 felTcd of a more comprehenfivc philofophy, were 

 not aftonilhed to meet with fads which were 

 inexplicable : They viewed Nature through a 

 more tranfparcnt medium. A peculiar corre- 

 fpondence or fympathy, was to them only a 

 phaenomenon ; but, to us, becaufe not reducible 

 to fome fanciful laws of motion, it is a paradox. 

 They knew that Nature produced her principal 

 effeds by laws concealed from human eyes : 

 They knew, that, to trace her various laws and 



modes 



