The Poetical Works of Henry Brooke ... In Four Volumes Octavo. Revised and corrected by the Original Manuscript With a Portrait of the Author, and His Life By Miss Brooke. The Third Edition |
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BOOK IV.
The author having, in the third book, taken a short survey of vegetable nature, proceeds to consider the animal system: and first life in general. That life, perception, &c. are terms applicable to some being of whose essence we can form no adequate idea, verse 7th, &c. Yet that such perception and consciousness are an evident demonstration both of the existence, and simplicity of such essence; and in this simplicity consists what we call personal identity, or sameness, 13: that, nevertheless, we are not to conclude that every organized being is informed with such an essence, so as to have an actual principle of motion and perception; since many such may possibly be no other than pieces of Almighty mechanism, and matter so curiously acted upon, may deceive us with the appearance of internal action, 23. That if ever matter is wrought to such an appearance of life, it is the utmost perfection its nature is capable of; and that it is impossible it should be endued with any real act or perception; demonstrated, 51. That therefore what we call the soul, or such essence so distinct from matter, must exist the same for ever, as it is simple, indissoluble, and unchangeable, 65. The wonderful and inconceivable obligation incumbent on all who have received such a benefit, 75. That as no other return can be made to the Author of beneficence, gratitude and benediction should be universal in their praises from all animate creatures, 97. As all, the most minute and even invisible animalcules, par-
And all his bosom glows with recent fires:
Life, Life, new forms and constitutes the theme!
The song too kindles in the vital flame,
Whose vivid principle diffusive spreads,
And thro' our strain contagious rapture sheds.
Whate'er the spark, the light, the lamp, the ray,
Essence or effluence of Essential Day,
Substance, or transubstantiate, and inshrined,
Soul, Spirit, Reason, Intellect, or Mind;
Or these but terms, that dignity the use
Of some Unknown, some Entity abstruse—
Appropriate to the individual breast;
Whence, independence thro' dependence flows,
And each unknowing his existence , knows;
Existence, varied by Almighty plan,
From lowly reptiles, to the pride of man;
While incorporeal in corporeal dwells,
Distinct, in union, of associate cells;
Whence powers their prime informing acts dispense,
And sovereign guide the ministry of sense.
And locomotive forms the nice machine,
Sublimed and quick thro' elemental strife,
The insensate boasts its vegetative life;
A steaming vapour thro' the mass exhales,
And warming breathes its imitative gales;
Fomenting in the heart's vibration plays,
And circling winds the tubulary maze;
With conscious act the vivid semblance vies,
And subtile now the sprightly nerve supplies;
Unconscious lifts the lucid ball to light,
And glares around with unperceiving sight;
Or studious seems to muse with thought profound,
Or lists as 'waked to catch the flying sound—
So temper'd wondrous by mechanic scheme,
The Sovereign Geometrician knits the frame;
And quick with spirited quintessence fraught:
When objects on the exterior membrane press,
The alarm runs inmost thro' each dark recess,
Impulsive strikes the corresponding springs,
And moves the accord of sympathetic strings;
Effects like acts inevitable rise,
(Preordinate in the Design Allwise)
Yet still their earthly origin retain,
Reductive to the principle terrene,
Tho' curious to deceive with mimic skill,
And feint the dictate of interior will.
Tho' wrought beneath The Almighty's Forming Hand,
Or sacred flame of heaven's empyreal day,
Can yield one glimpse of all-informing mind;
The parts distinct in firm cohesion lie,
Distinct as those that range the distant sky;
Time's fleeting points the unreal self devour,
Varied and lost thro' every changling hour;
Whence, the precarious system, tho' compact,
Can ne'er arrive to individual act;
Since impotence absurdly should ensue,
Distinction be the same, and one be ten, or two.
The soul's irradiance burns with native light,
A pure essential unit, incompound;
Celestial Queen, with conscious scepter graced,
And rights in prime of vital action placed!
Hence by identity all thought subsists,
And one, in the existing one, exists;
The one indissoluble must exist,
And deathless thro' eternity subsist.
Deep Source of Principle, and Light of Light,
Whose Is will Be, whose Will Be ever was,
Of Self Essential Coessential Cause!
If not unhallow'd, nor the song profane,
Nor voice of matin elevation vain;
Prime, as the lark with earliest rapture springs,
And warbling soars to Goodness, warbling sings,
To Thee permissive sings with venial lays,
And wings his pittance of ascending praise—
O! whence to Us? or whence to aught? but Thee!
The word, the bliss, the privilege,—to Be—
Or if to Be, for Thee alone to Be,
Derivative Great Author Sole! from Thee
To pour the largess of perceptive sense,
Sense to perceive, to feel, to find, to know,
That we enjoy, and You Alone bestow.
Could increation crave Thy Vital Skill,
The virtual Fiat of Creative Will?
Less can Thy Flow of Plenitude receive
Reversion from the goods Its Bounty gave.
In all thy feeling soft suggestions drest,
And heave the swell of each exulting breast!
Thou Sentiment of friendship's cordial tye!
Thou Thanks expressive from the moistening eye!
Thou pledge assured of firm Dependence dear,
Reposed on Omnipresence, ever near—
Thro' all that breathe, waft, waft thy hallow'd gale,
And let the universal wish exhale;
In symphony of vocal transport raise,
And mount to Heaven the tributary praise!
Whence, happy creatures! all your blessings flow,
Your voice to praise Him, and your skill to know;
Whence, as the drops that deck the morning's robe,
And gem the bosom of the twinkling globe,
Profusive gifts the Smiling Goodness sheds,
And boon around His boundless plenty spreads;
Inscrutable amid the etherial space,
That mock unseen, while human optic pries
Or aids the search with microscopic eyes,
The sweets of Deified Complacence claim;
To Him display the wonders of their frame,
His own contexture, where Eternal Art,
Emotive, pants within the alternate heart:
And hence impulsive bounds the sanguine tide,
With blithe pulsation beats the arterial maze,
And thro' the branching complication plays;
Its wanton floods the tubal system lave,
And to the veins resign their vital wave;
Thro' glands refining , shed specific juice,
Secreted nice to each appropriate use;
Or here expansile , in meanders bend,
While thro' the pores nutritive portions tend,
Their equal aliment dividual share,
And similar to kindred parts adhere.
From thousand rills the flux continuous drains,
Now swells the porta, now the cava veins;
Here rallies last the recollected blood,
And on the right pours in the cordial flood:
While gales ingredient to the thorax pass,
And breathing lungs imbibe the etherial mass;
Whence, their licentious ducts dilation claim,
And open obvious to the welcome stream,
Expulsive springs its recontinual course.
The captive air impatient of retreat,
Refines expansive with internal heat,
Its levity too rare to poise the exterior weight;
Compressive round the incumbent æther lies,
And strict its elemental fold applies,
Whence either pulmonary lobe expires,
And all the interior subtile breath retires;
Subsiding lungs their labouring vessels press,
Affected mutual with severe distress,
While towards the left their confluent torrents gush,
And on the heart's sinister cavern rush;
Collected there complete their circling rout,
And vigorous from their venal engine shoot.
Again the heart's constrictive powers revive,
And the fresh fountain thro' the Aorta drive;
Arterial valves oppose the refluent blood,
And swift injections push the lingering flood;
Sped by the last, the foremost currents bound,
And thus perennial run the purpling round.
From India south the expanded oceans steam,
Intense their fervid exhalations rise,
And scale the steep of equinoctial skies;
Collected now progressive proudly sail,
And ride high born upon the trading gale;
Now 'thwart the trope, or zone antartic steer,
And now aloof the Cape's emergence veer;
Now wheeling dextrous wind the Æthiop main,
And shading now the Atlantic ocean stain;
Now westward hang o'er Montezuma's throne,
And view the worlds to ancient worlds unknown:
Around the antipodes the adventurers roam,
And exiled never hope their native home;
Some pious drops the restless vagrants shed,
And now afresh their wing'd effusion spread;
Askance, or cross the broad Pacific deep,
Obliquely north the floating squadrons sweep;
Now hurry'd on Sarmatian tempests roll;
Sinister round extreme Imaus bend,
And glooming o'er the Scythian realms depend;
Now driven before the keen Septentrion fly,
And intercept the clear Norossian sky;
Now view where swathed the mighty Tartar lay;
Now sidelong hover on the Caspian sea;
Now gather blackening from the farther shore,
And o'er Armenia sluice the impetuous store;
Euphrates here and rapid Tigris swell,
And weep their streams where great Darius fell.
Primæval there, the blissful garden stood;
Here, youthful Ammon stemm'd the torrent flood.
Circumfluous rolls the long disparted tide,
And mighty realms the wandering flux divide:
Here, Nineveh, and fair Seleucia rise;
There, Babel vain, attempts the laughing skies,
While proudly round the female structures gleam,
And break and tremble in the blazing stream;
Proficient whence, the liquid confluence meet,
And thro' the gulph their kindred ocean greet;
Urg'd by the moon, abjure the pearly shore,
And travel whence they sprung—to travel as before.
As disproportion'd, thro' allusion wide!
What tho' we join this globe's encumber'd frame,
The deep unfathom'd, and the copious stream,
With all the appendage of incumbent skies,
To match the frame of animalcule size—
Our theme no great (of One exclusive ) knows;
No little, when from One, that One, it flows;
This globe an atom to the native space,
Where vortical it wheels its annual race;
A point to worlds that circling blaze around;
Lost in the whole , these vanish in their turn,
And but with relative effulgence burn:
But where finite to Infinite aspires,
Shrunk from its Lord, the universe retires;
A shade its substance, and a blank its state,
Where One, and only One, is only Great!
All equidistant , or alike all near,
The reptile minim, or the rolling sphere;
In form finite Infinitude express;
Express the seal of Character Divine,
And bright, thro' His informing Radiance, shine.
And worlds on worlds illimited explores;
No end of thought, or time, or space is found,
And each immense, are each, in either drown'd:
So when the mind to central beauty tends,
And strict to fix some certain period bends,
In vain its ultimate contraction's sought,
And still delusive, shuns the labouring thought;
While That Immense ! whence every essence came,
Still Endless reigns in each minutest frame.
Nor deem our animalcule's texture vain;
Where tuned thro' every corresponding part,
Its system closes in consummate art.
Quick, from the mind's imperial mansion shed,
With lively tension spins the nervous thread,
With flux of animate effluvia stored,
And tubes of nicest perforation bored,
Whose branching maze thro' every organ tends,
And unity of conscious action lends;
And wing the message of informing mind ;
Or objects to the ideal seat convey;
Or dictate motion with internal sway.
Coop'd in his camp the Julian hero lay,
Full on the ditch the dusk Numidians bound,
And Rome's last hopes recruited rage around;
Serenely still, amid the dread alarms,
See, Cæsar sits, the mighty soul of arms!
See, at his nod, the various combat burns,
And the wing'd scout still turns, and still returns!
While he, the war sedately weigh'd informs,
Himself unmoved amid surrounding storms.
The Soul assumes her intellectual throne;
Each rising thought with prompt observance catch,
The tidings of internal passion spread,
And thro' each part the swift contagion shed.
With motive throes the quickening limbs conceive;
The blood tempestuous, pours a flushing wave;
With raging swell alternate pantings rise;
And terrors rowl within the kindling eyes.
The mind thus speeds her ministry abroad,
And rules obedient matter with a nod;
The obsequious mass beneath her influence yields,
And even her will the unwieldy fabric wields.
Thro' winding paths her sprightly envoys fly,
Or watchful in the frontier senses lie;
Brisk on the tongue the grateful gusto greet,
And thro' the nerves return the ideal sweet;
Or incense from the nostrils gate exhale,
And to their goddess waft the odorous gale;
Attentive round the tortuous ear patrole,
There each sonorous undulation wait,
And thrill in rapture to the mental seat;
Or wondrous to the organick vision pass,
And to the mind inflect the magick glass;
Here born elate upon etherial tides,
The blythe illuminated glory glides,
And on the beam the painted image rides ;
Those images that still continuous flow,
Effluviated around, above, below,
True to the colour, distance, shape, and size,
That from essential things perpetual rise,
And obvious gratulate our wondering eyes;
Convey the bloom of nature's smiling scene ,
The vernal landskip, and the watery main;
The frisking lambkin, and the wanton fawn;
The sight how grateful to the social soul,
That thus imbibes the blessings of the whole,
Joys in their joy, while each inspires his breast
With blessings multiplied from all that's blest!
Nor less yon heights the unfolding heaven display,
Its nightly twinkle, and its streaming day;
The page impress'd conspicuous on the skies,
A preface to the Book of Glory lies;
We mount the steep, high born upon delight,
While hope aspires beyond—and distances the sight.
Thus heaven and earth, whom varying graces deck,
In full proportions paint the visual speck;
So awful did the Almighty's forming will,
Amazing texture, and stupendous skill,
And the bright gem with lucid humours lave ;
So gave the ball's collected ray to glow,
And round the pupil arch'd his radiant bow ;
Full in a point unmeasured spaces lie,
And worlds inclusive dwell within our eye.
Yet useless was this textured wonder made,
Were Nature, beauteous object! undisplay'd;
Those, both as vain, the object, and the sight,
Wrapt from the radiance of revealing light;
As vain the bright illuminating beam,
Unwafted by the medium's airy stream:
Yet vain the textured eye, and object fair,
The sunny lustre, and continuous air;
All, all its grace, and lifeless glories, vain;
Till from the Eternal sprung this effluent Soul,
Bless'd to inspect, and comprehend the whole!
O whence, say whence this endless Beauty springs,
This awful, dear, delightful depth of things?
Whence but from Thee! Thou Great One! Thou Divine!
Placid! and Mild! All Gracious! All Benign!
Thou Nature's Parent! and Supreme Desire!
How loved the offspring!—and how bless'd the Sire!
How ever Bless'd! as blessings from Thee flow,
And spread all bounteous on Thy works below:
The reptile , wreathed in many a wanton play;
And insect, basking in the shine of day;
The grazing quadruped, and plumy choir
That earthly born to heavenly heights aspire;
That numberless adorn our future theme,—
Fed in Thy bounty, fashion'd in Thy Skill,
Cloath'd in Thy Love, instructed in Thy will,
Safe in Thy conduct, their unerring guide,
All-save the child of ignorance and pride—
The paths of Beauty and of Truth pursue,
And teach proud man those lectures which ensue!
Tho' (upon the reasons and authority of an eminent author) it has long been admitted, that personal identity, or sameness, consists in consciousness; yet as consciousness, whether by direct, or reflex perception, may, at most, be no other than the inseparable operation, or active principle of some simple, unchangeable, or individual substance; it is obvious to dispute, that such identity, or sameness, may more truly exist in the simplicity, or unchangeableness of such substance, than in any operation, whether separable, or inseparable: and yet, on the other hand, it is most evident, that a consciousness agreeing through differently distant points of duration, or (if I may be allowed the expression) a consentaneous perception, is the highest demonstration of the identity of such substance, as no one substance, or being, can perceive for another; which again is a further demonstration of the simplicity, or unchangeableness of such substance, as it now perceives for that very self, which it also perceives was the same, or identical self, from the first instant of its perception, notwithstanding all the various changes, and revolutions it has observed through all nature beside—
neither the manner in which the union between such substance and matter is made, so as to inform the stupid mass with an action utterly alien to its nature.
In the account to which this note is annexed, I have doubtless assigned a capacity of higher perfections to matter than it will easily be admitted susceptible of; and therefore I was obliged to call in no less than—
Omnipotence to support the scheme, who actuating and informing all nature by his wisdom, as he created it by his will, the creature so subjected cannot possibly withstand the creating power, and nothing to him is impossible, but impossibility, that is impotence, or what in the very supposition destroys that very power it would assert;—nor are such impotential hypotheses unfrequently started, and defended by a misguided zeal, which in the behalf of Omnipotence would destroy the very nature of power, indistinctly confounding truth and falsehood, and thereby ascribing and subjecting all things rather to an unaccountable arbitrary will, than to an infinite power ever guided equally by that infinite wisdom which equally and infinitely contemplates and actuates nature, agreeable to that order and those laws originally by that wisdom impressed on all things.—I should be unwilling to lay an error of this kind to the charge of a worthy prelate of a neighbouring nation, author of a late most learned treatise, wherein he denies that brutes, or the inferior animal system is endued with any being distinct from matter, and yet does not seem to me to account for the existence of actions of such animals as mere machines; but if I do not grossly misapprehend him, he ascribes to them, and consequently to mere matter under the term of animal life, an inferior kind of perception and ideas, and thus has carried the perfections of matter to a higher pitch than I can pretend to with any appearance of reason or even possibility.—I shall hereafter have a more ample and proper opportunity to shew the absurdity of this hypothesis, and shall at present only hint a few reasons that are applicable to the occasion, which are these—
Whether matter be divisible ad infinitum, or not, if it is capable of any degree of perception, such perception must either be naturally inherent, or arise from some peculiar modification:—now as no two parts of matter can exist in the same place, (for then neither part would exist in any place, as each would occupy the place of the other) the parts however harmoniously modified, or closely united, are absolutely distinct from each other, since their coherence can only consist in neighbourhood or contiguity, and not in corporation:—if therefore the parts so distinct have any inherent perception, they must have a perception as distinct from each other as their parts; and if divisible ad infinitum, there is such a confusion of indistinct distinct perceptions, as is too absurd for any thing but a jest.—But if matter is reducible to atoms, and every atom supposed to perceive, I would ask how atoms can be organized so as to see, hear, smell, &c. and if organization is necessary to the perception of matter, either such perception arises intirely new from the organization, or the organization only gives a liberty of action to the perception that was prior and distinctly latent in every part:—but if in the former supposition such perception is solely produced by the organization or modification, organization or modification, however nice or mechanic, being no other than a mode of form, or figure, the most extraneous and incidental of any property of matter, and perception being the most absolute and simple of any thing we know, and by which alone we know all that we do know; such hypothesis I say carries in itself such a palpable contradiction and confutation, as to make what is simple, absolute, and invariable, to be produced by what is most compound, precarious, and changeable, nay, by a mere relative term, figure being no other than the circumscription of space surrounding a finite body.—But, if in the last case and refuge, organization or modification is supposed only to give a power of action to what was before latent in the parts of matter, if the perceptions continue still as distinct as the parts, here must arise such a multiplicity of perceptions, as must destroy and confound the very operation of the organs by which the parts perceive. And lastly, if it be alleged that by the modification, the parts become so loving and neighbourly, as by sharing the perception of each other to make one amicable union of the whole, each part must still retain its proper right to its portion of perception; and if upon any accident a member of the system should be lopped off, why then truly a piece of such united perception being gone, we have only a piece of perception remaining; and thus also perception the most simple of all units must be daily and hourly divided by the perpetual flux of matter—
Whence I must necessarily and inevitably conclude, that whatever being is endued with the least degree of perception, must be a being, substance, or essence, as widely and oppositely distinct from matter, as any two things can be imagined: and though I do not see but such essences may be of infinitely different natures, and consequently differ in their manners and degrees of powers and perfections; yet as no being can perish but by annihilation, which though no contradiction to Almighty power, can yet never be admitted consistent with that creating wisdom which does nothing in vain; since even matter is otherwise imperishable, however its variation may deceive us, which only arises from its accidental properties of divisibility and cohesion: I must from the whole as necessarily and inevitably conclude, that what ever being is endued with any degree of real perception, as it cannot be affected with those accidental properties of matter, neither can it be affected with the variation that arises thereon, and must consequently exist in a higher enjoyment of powers and perfections, and that for ever.
The meaning of the expression is, that the reason or necessity of the Deity's existence is included in himself.
As I claim no advantage from a poetical licence, to assert any thing contrary to what I apprehend as truth; it may reasonably be demanded here, how it comes to be known that there are animalcules so minute, as cannot come under the cognizance of our senses, by which alone we can perceive them. But I think it may more reasonably be answered; that since for many ages past the continual and successive improvements that have been made in natural philosophy, by perpetually displaying new and unimagined scenes of knowledge, do at the same time demonstrate there are many yet unopened; and since the use of glasses shews us how much our eyes were defective, and the further invention and improvements of such glasses still shew the defect of all the former, and yet can never arrive to the perception of any part of matter or inanimate body more minute than many systems and species of beings endued with animal life; I say, upon such consideration, it would be extremely absurd to stop here, and assert there is nothing further left for an Infinite and All Operating Wisdom.
And further—As equivocal generation, upon the soundest reasons, search, and experiments, is most justly exploded—however difficult it may appear to our apprehension, it is most certain, that such animal life in any material being, however minute, cannot exist without organization; since upon its supposition of being a mere machine, it must still have within, and throughout, those secret wheels and springs of motion, to which the machines of human artists may bear an inferior analogy or resemblance. And on the supposition of its being immaterial, but in union with a material vehicle; if the being in such union is perceptive, there then must consequently be a proper medium or organization for the conveyance to such perception—And again, this organization in the present flux and incertain state of matter, must be supported, continued, and supplied by as proper and equivalent means, as—
sanguification; the manner of which (so long and often debated) is as clearly and intelligibly represented, as the conciseness of this plan will admit; and is in some measure illustrated by the following—
allusion; where the earth may be considered as representing the solids of the animal system—the exhalations and streams as representing the circulating fluids—the wind or gales conveying those exhalations, the interior breath—and the influence of the moon on tides, the external influence of the atmosphere, which by compressing the thorax, and lungs, acts as antagonist to the natural contraction of the heart's muscular texture; and by embracing the outward members of the body, thereby, in some measure, actuates and assists the blood to mount in its return, and ascent, contrary to all the known laws of motion.
That the former comparison is by no means inadequate; great and little, being but relative terms, in respect of finite essences; and magnitude, or minuteness, as they appear or disappear reciprocally by comparison, depending barely on the relations, and not the essences or nature of things; as the term little is greater than what is less, and is only little by being compared with something greater; so that, properly speaking, whatever is finite, in respect of what is finite, is not really little; whereas, on the other hand, in respect of infinity, all things finite are equally diminutive; being equally remote from—
thus to any person, who should compare this stupendous globe of earth and ocean, to its vortex, or the vast extent of space that includes our planetary system, in which Saturn takes thirty years to finish his circle round the sun; upon the supposition that such person were transported to the sun in the center of our vortex, and the earth transported beyond the planet Saturn, to the uttermost verge of the vortex; this earth, though shining with reflected light, would not then appear even as a point, and would only be visible by the assistance of a telescope.—
Again, should such person contemplate the surrounding vortexes within his ken, where all the planets or inhabited worlds disappear, and nothing is perceeived but a glimmering ray shed from the several suns that shine each in the center of their proper vortex; upon comparing our vortical system to those other worlds or systems that appear numberless in his view; it is evident, that in the comparison, our system would barely hold the proportion of a unit in number, or a point in magnitude—
and yet further, should our thoughts extend to take in those other vortexes, systems, and suns, that are only visible by the help of glasses; and extending yet further, comprehend the whole imaginable and grand material system or universe: in this comparison, all the visible worlds in their turn would shrink to a proportionate point.—
But should we attempt yet higher, and compare the universe of matter, to immensity, the attribute of Deity; here the whole universal system, with which our thoughts were so greatly expanded, quite vanishes; since whatever is finite, as finite, will admit of no comparative relation with Infinity; for whatever is less than infinite, is still infinitely distant from Infinity, and lower than infinite distance the lowest or least cannot sink—
and yet by being creatures, even the most seemingly despicable, bear such relation to their Creator, as expresses His stamp and character sufficient to make it most highly valuable to all its fellow-creatures; who are themselves only valuable, by sharing and partaking the same Divine Influence—
which Divine Influence or character not only declares the immediate operation and art of omnipotence, but even so far is expressive of the very attribute of Deity, that whereas outwardly we can assign no certain bounds to the works of an infinite energy—
so; on the other hand, within we are as much lost and bewildered, in attempting to find or assign any point or period in the texture of the most minute animalcule—
while the harmony and infinity of the Eternal Artist are, in some degree; impressed on his works; and as outwardly we can find no bounds, so inwardly we can find no end of art and beauty—
Shall we then slight, or deem that little, in which immensity is so conspicuous? or trivial, which could employ no less than infinite wisdom and power?
It has already been proved in this book, where the circulation of the blood was treated of (vide supra) that the least animalcule must distinctly and perfectly have all the proportion, symmetry, and adjustment of that organized texture, which is indispensably necessary for the several functions of animal life: and as I there chose the smallest of imaginable animal creatures for the general instance of the oeconomy of an animal body; so here I continue it as an instance of general motion and sensation, both of which are performed by the mediation of the nerves, that all tend to, and arise from the brain and spinal marrow. And though formerly I shewed that matter when so curiously organized, might possibly be susceptible of motion, and even the appearance of sensation, by the correspondence of its inward texture with the outward impulse, or impressions made on it, like the answering harmony of a musical instrument (vide supra); yet I further demonstrated, that bare matter cannot possibly be susceptible of the least real sensation, or perception (vide supra). I am therefore obliged, upon this occasion, and on the supposition of actual sensation, to introduce—
a being of a nature distinct from matter, which being situate in the original point of motion and sensation—
(like Julius Cæsar in his camp at Ruspina in Afric, when attacked by Scipio and the confederate forces of Juba) without moving from that situation, receives all the concurrent intelligencies from abroad, by which means it is instructed to send forth its orders and emissaries as occasions require, and thus directs and informs the whole bodily system.
It is an observation of an author learned in the law, that “non omne simile quatuor pedi-“bus currit;” yet as our passions (the operation of which is above described) may be called a state of warfare, the simile even in that respect is not unjust.
I did not think it necessary to insert here the sense of feeling, not only because there is no special or peculiar organ to which it bears relation, but because I take it for a sort of universal sense, all sensation being performed by contact; and so—
seeing, being but a different kind of touch, or feeling, agreeable and accommodated to the difference of objects that are thereby perceived.
and as by means of this miraculous organ of sight, the beauties of earth are conspicuous, so in the first page of heaven expanded before us, to raise our hope to an assurance of further bliss.
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