IMPORTANCE OF ANALOGY. bQ 



not so much spring from perceiving that some general 

 principle holds good and re-appears in a great number 

 of instances that very nearly, or perfectly, resemble one 

 another, as from discovering the occult presence or effi- 

 cacy of some such principle in a multitude of cases 

 which have few points, or perhaps no other points, of 

 alliance beside this one, of their obedience to the same 

 abstract law. The more there is of external diversity^ 

 or unlikeness, among particular instances thus allied by 

 their subjection to a common rule, so much the more 

 of satisfaction and delight will be afforded to the mind 

 when it detects the hidden principle of union. These 

 elements of intellectual enjoyment are richly furnished 

 by the studies of the naturalist. Now, it may be, he 

 compares family with family of the animal and vegetable 

 world ; and, after marking the ostensible peculiarities of 

 each, descends beneath the surface of their external dif- 

 ferences, and lays open those great and uniform prin- 

 ciples of mechanical or chemical structure to which all 

 are conformed; and (if the figure may be used) he 

 listens, and hears all beings uttering, in their several dia- 

 lects, one and the same code of physical existence. The 

 naturalist, after giving a moment to the obvious or 

 common gratification that springs from novelty and di-- 

 versity, seeks, and soon finds, the more lasting and sub- 

 stantial pleasures of reason, while marking the oneness 

 and harmony of Nature, even where her clothing and 

 her colours, and her proportions, have the least of uni- 

 formity. If we might so speak, it is by her diversities, 

 her gay adornments, — her copious fund of forms, and 

 her sportive freaks of shape and colour, that Nature 

 allures the eye of man ; while she draws him on to the 

 more arduous, but more noble, pursuit of her hidden 

 analogies. Unlikeness awakens his attention ; uniformity 

 or simplicity fixes and enchains it ; and by the pleasure 

 it confers, insures, on his part, the laborious investi- 

 gation of abstruse principles. 



(72.) " While the human mind is thus employed, 

 an insensible process goes on, the effect of which is gra- 



F 3 



