OF APES. 59 



he does that of impulfion, or if he had a fenfe 

 relative to it, he would be enabled to perceive 

 the effence of matter, and to arrange fmall por- 

 tions of it, in the fame manner as Nature ope- 

 rates at large. It is owing to the want of inftru- 

 ments, therefore, that human art cannot ap- 

 proach that of Nature. His figures, his pidures, 

 liis defigns, are only furfaces, or imitations of 

 furfaces; becaufe the images he receives by his 

 fenies are all fuperficial, and he has no mode of 

 giving them a tody. 



What is true with regard to the arts, applies 

 likewife to the fclences. The latter, however, 

 are not fo much limited ; becaufe the mind is 

 their chief inftrument, and becaufe, in the for- 

 mer, it is fubordinate to the fenfes. But, in the 

 fciences, the mind commands the fenfes as often 

 as it is employed in thinking and not in opera- 

 ting, in comparing and not in imitating. Now, 

 the mind, though bound up by the fenfes, though 

 often deceived by their fallacious reports, is nei- 

 ther diminilhed in its purity nor adivity. Man, 

 who naturally loves knowledge, commenced by 

 redifying and demonftrating the errors of the 

 fenfes. He has treated them as mechanical inftru- 

 nients, the effeds of which muft be fiibmitted to 

 the tell of experiment. Proceeding thus with the 

 balance in one hand, and the compafs in the other, 

 he has meafured both time and fpace. He has 

 recognifed tb.e whole outfide of Nature; and, be- 

 ing unable to penetrate her internal parts by his 



fenfes, 



