68 MEMOIRS OF 



conscious of the thincrs and circumstances which 

 pass around us, and of the vast number of those 

 which pass wdthin us ; and, independent of the 

 internal pains wlncli warn us of some disorder 

 in our organisation, and the sufferings occasioned 

 by hunger, thirst, and fatigue, it is by means 

 of these senses that we feel the emotions of pity, 

 the agonies of fear, &c. These latter sensations 

 are rather tlie effect of a reaction on the nervous 

 system than immediate impressions ; and as the 

 siglit of some innninent danger makes us fly 

 without the will having had time to act, it is 

 also involuntarily that we feel transport at the 

 sight of a beloved object, or shed tears at the 

 sight of virtue in distress. These effects of the 

 nervous system arise from the numerous com- 

 miuiications of particular nerves, called sympa- 

 thetic, existing between divers ramifications of 

 the general trunk ; and by means of which im- 

 pressions are more rapidly transmitted than by 

 means of the brain. These knots of nerves, 

 which, when enlarged, bear the name of gang- 

 lions, are a species of secondary brains, and are 

 always of greater size, and in a greater number, 

 as the proportion of the principal brain is less 

 considerable." 



When, in the third division, M. Cuvier treats 



