ON THE STUDY OF NATURE. 7 



rior powers, and soar to a height that exalts it far 

 above the reach of others ; and yet, in trying to ex- 

 plain the cause of animal motion, the meanest reptile 

 that crawls upon the ground is, humiliating as the 

 thought may be, on a footing of perfect equality 

 with a Newton : they can alike exert the po.vers con- 

 ferred on them by the Alruighty Creator, without 

 being able to form the smallest idea of the way in 

 which they are enabled to produce these effects. 

 Man, however, can contemplate these effects if he 

 will; and Man, perhaps alone, of all the animals 

 that exist on this globe, is permitted, by contem- 

 plating the wonders that these unfold, to form, if 

 he pleases, some idea of his own nothingness, with 

 a view to moderate his pride, and thus to exalt him- 

 felf above the unconscious agents that surround him. 

 When the Anatomist considers how many mus- 

 cles must be put in motion before any animal exer- 

 tion can be affected : when he views them one by 

 by one, and tries to ascertain the precise degree to 

 which each individual muscle must be constricted or 

 relaxed, before the particular motion indicated can 

 be affected, he finds himself lost in the labyrinth of 

 calculations in which this involves him. When he 

 further reflects tliat it is not his own body only tJiat 

 is endowed with the faculty of calling forth these in- 

 comprehensible energies, but that the mo>t insignifi- 

 cant insect is vested with powers of a similar nature, 

 he is still more confounded. A skilful naturalist has ■ 

 been able to perceive that in the body of the lowest 

 Caterpillar, which, in the common op.nion, is one 

 of the most degraded existences on this globe, there 



B4 



