78 LECTURE II. 



If I may be permitted to express myself 

 allegorically, with regard to our intellectual 

 operations, I would say, that the mind 

 chooses for itself some little spot or district 

 where it erects a dwelling which it fur- 

 nishes and decorates with the various ma- 

 terials it collects. Of many apartments 

 contained in it, there is one to which it is 

 most partial, where it chiefly reposes, and 

 where it sometimes indulges its visionary 

 fancies. At the same time it employs itself 

 in cultivating the surrounding grounds, 

 raising little articles for intellectual traffic 

 with its neighbours, or perhaps some pro- 

 duce worthy to be deposited amongst the 

 general stores of human knowledge. 



Thus my mind rests at peace in thinking 

 on the subject of life, as it has been taught 

 by Mr. Hunter ; and I am visionary enough 

 to imagine, that if these opinions should 

 become so established as to be generally 

 admitted by philosophers, that if they once 

 saw reason to believe that life was some- 

 thing of an invisible and active nature 

 superadded to organization, they would 



