5 ON THE STUDY OF NATURE. 



and if we enter into examination of the viscera, ths 

 skin, and the other parts of the body, we can fix no 

 bounds to our astonishment. 



But all the common operations of Nature, great as 

 they are, become in general so familiar to us, that 

 in a great measure they cease to attract our notice. 

 Thus also all the usual powers of animal life, which* 

 were they but adverted to, could not fail to affect 

 the mind with the most avveful impressions, are suf- 

 fered to operate unheeded, as if unseen. — We all 

 know, for example, that, whenever inclination 

 prompts to it, we can, by a very shght exertion of 

 our vital faculties, raise our hand to our head. No- 

 thing seems more simple, or more easy than this ac- 

 tion ; yet when we attempt to form an idea of the 

 way in which tliat incorporeal existence that we call 

 mind, can operate upon matter, and thus put it in 

 motion, we are perfectly lost in the incomprehensible 

 immensity that surrounds us. When we try to in- 

 vestigate the properties of matter, we perceive that 

 by patience and attention we can make a progress in 

 attainments to which, according to our limited ideas, 

 bounds can scarcely be assigned. The motions of 

 the planets can be ascertained, their distances mea- 

 sured, and their periods assigned. The Mathema- 

 tician can demons^.trate, Vi'ith the most decisive cer- 

 tainty,, that no Fly can alight upon this globe which 

 we inhabit, without communicating motion to it; anc] 

 he can ascertain, if he chuses to do it, with the most 

 accurate precision, what must be the exact amount 

 of the motion thus produced. In this train of inves, 

 tigation the mind of a Newton can display its supe- 



