ficient proof of any kind: but, now the fashion is, to believe nothing but what we see; whence the most interesting truths are rejected. It is generally believed the moon has the power to raise the waters of the sea, because we see the effects ascribed to it in the tides; and yet no one thinks the same planet has the like effect on the small quantity of fluid which circulates. in the organized bodies of vegetables and animals; and that for no other reason but because they cannot see it. If that planet has one decided influence, why should it not have a similar influence over all bodies? The formation of men and animals long puzzled those worldmakers, who would attribute every thing to material causes. At length a discovery was supposed to be made of primitive animalcula, of organic molecula, from whom every kind of animal was formed. It was found out, that nature one day teeming in the vigour of youth, produced the first animal; a shapeless, clumsy, microscopical object. This, by the natural tendency of original propagation, to vary and protect the species, produced others better organized. These again produced others more perfect than themselves, till at last appeared the most complete species of animals, the human kind, beyond whose perfection it is impossible for the work

of

of generation to proceed. On the contrary, nature being arrived at this ultimate point of perfection, the whole animal race is degenerating; men into beasts, beasts into insects, insects into the primary animalcula, and so on. How long it will be before they arrive at the state from which they will doubtless set forward again, is not as yet quite determined.

Matter thinks, it is said, but not all matter indefinitely. In order for matter to think, it is necessary, they say, that it should be arranged in a particular manner, in the formation of organized bodies. But, either the primary elements, the atoms themselves, must think, or matter in any shape cannot be supposed capable of thought. Should an organized body have perception, the elements that compose it must also have perception. Those elements do not change their nature by their combination, nor will they do it by their decomposition. What is organization, but a particular arrangement of parts? ? And do simple unthinking elements become capable of thinking, in proportion as they are disposed in this or in that peculiar manner? This is as much as to say, an atom, which cannot think while it remains on the left hand of another, may be rendered capable of thinking by being

placed on the right. I can never conceive, that a capacity of thinking can be the effect of the combination and motion of unthinking ele

ments.

It is vain to employ profound thought, and intense application, in attempting to explore the secrets of the invisible world. Philosophers, on this ground, are merely on a level with the rest of mankind. They may consume their reason in such deep but unsubstantial meditations; but, their minds must be eternally exposed to the illusions of fancy. A sober intellect, as it looks only at things as they lie before it, and neither considers nor cares whether causation be in one way or the other, may be a more competent judge of the reality of a fact, than the most subtile pyrrhonist, who, full of his own notions, and inflated with the opinion of his extraordinary researches, plunges through thick and thin, and never arrives at a certainty. Some, indeed, think they cannot in honour own any thing to be true, which they cannot demonstrate. To be taught any new points, is to confess former ignorance. But, in sober sadness, we should do well to commiserate our mutual poverty in knowledge. For where is the man who has incontestible evidence of the truth of

all

all that he holds, or of the falsehood of all he condemns? In this fleeting state of action and blindness in which we are placed, belief instead of proof must regulate us in general conclu

sions,

The search into mind and matter is, indeed, captivating and sublime. The more accurately we continue the pursuit, the stronger traces we every where shall find, of the wisdom and bounty of that Being who blended them together. "Thou art a poor spirit, carrying a dead carcase about thee," says Epictetus. But are souls in their nature different, or are they the same and unvaried in all men ?-Sensibility, desires, passions, remembrance, recollection, wit, talents of every kind, even the most inferior qualities of the soul, are different in every individual. This mysterious truth is equally inexplicable to the learned and unlearned. It is a secret impenetrable to man, and known only to the Great Author of Nature. But, as we are able to guess at the diversity of souls, by the difference of animated bodies to which they are united, and by the different circumstances of individuals, why may not the possibility, and even the facility of a physical explanation of the diversities

2

sities of characters, passions, minds, induce us to conceive that souls are not essentially different from each other; but that when once united to body, they instantly become liable to physical laws, and receive their character from organization?

The phænomena of animal and vegetable bodies have always been considered as matters of inexhaustible praise to the Creator. But, is the use of the passions, which are the organs of the mind, barren of praise to him, or unproductive to ourselves of that noble and uncommon union of science and admiration, which a contemplation of the works of infinite wisdom alone can afford to a rational mind? To the God of Nature we refer whatever we find of right, or good, or fair, in ourselves; discovering his strength and wisdom, even in our own weakness and imperfection; honouring them when we discover them clearly; and adoring their profundity, where we are lost in the research. Is not this to be inquisitive without impertinence, and elevated without pride? Is it not to be admitted, if I may dare say so, into the councils of the Almighty, by the consideration of his works?* Materialism,

Burke.