OP NATURAL HISTORY. 1^7 



more obfcure than thofe which are more remote, the firft will ap- 

 5)ear to be laft, and the laft firft. 



Before I difmifs this fubjed, I feel an irrefiftible defire of giving 

 a fliort view of the Abbe de Condillac's Traite des Senfations * ; a 

 moft ingenious performance, which, I believe, is not very generally 

 known in this country. 



In an advertifement prefixed to this Treatife, the fagacious and 

 learned Abbe defires his readers to abftradl themfelves from all their 

 preconceived opinions, and to imagine the fituation and feelings of 

 a ftatue, limited, at firft, to a fingle fenfe, and afterwards acquiring 

 gradually the whole five. 



1 . Setife of Smelling alone. 



A man, or a ftatue, who had no fenfe but that of fmelling, could 

 have no other ideas than thofe of odours. He would be the fmell 

 of a rofe, a violet, or a jeflamine, according as the effluvia of thefe 

 objefts adted upon his fingle organ of fenfation. From agreeable or 

 difagreeable fmells he would acquire ideas of pleafure and pain. By 

 means of agreeable and difagreeable fmells frequently repeated, thefe 

 fenfations would remain in his memory, and produce defire and 

 averfion. He can now compare the fmell of a rofe with that of an 

 2 Aa2 hemlock, 



• From the edition 1754, in two ?olumes lamo. 



