Appendix - GENERAL REFLECTIONS

GENERAL REFLECTIONS

  Having now, as my leisure and abilities permitted, taken a survey of the wisdom of God in the creation; before I conclude, it may not be improper to add something, in answer to those on the one hand, who imagine all inquiries of this kind to be vain, fruitless labour: and those on the other, who spend more time therein than is consistent either with religion or reason.

I do this chiefly in the words of that great ornament of his profession, the lord chief justice Hale. He supposes the good steward giving in his account, at the last day, thus to speak. “Happy is he, who can adopt his words, in speaking to the Judge of all !"

1. I have not looked upon thy works inconsiderately, and passed them over as ordinary things. But I have studiously and diligently searched into them, as things of great eminence and wonder; and have esteemed it part of the duty, which the wise God of nature requires of the children of men, who, for that very end, exposed these his works to the view of his intelligent creatures, and gave us not only eyes to behold, but reason, in some measure, to understand them. Therefore I have strictly observed the frame of the world and its several parts, the motion, order, and divine economy of them I have searched into their quality, causes, and operations; and have discovered as great, if not greater matter of admiration therein, than in the beauty, which at first view, they presented to my sense.

2. And this observation did not rest in the bare perusal of the works themselves, or in the searching out, so fir as that could be. done, their immediate natural causes. But I traced their being, dependence, and government, unto Thee, the first cause of all. And by this tracing of things to their original, I was led to a demonstrative conviction, that there is a God, who is the great came, both of their being and motions : yea, that there is but one God; that He is most powerful, most wise, knowing all things, governing all things, supporting all things. Upon these convictions, I was strengthened in the belief of the holy word, which had so great a congruity with these truths.

3. And, upon these convictions. I did learn the more to honour, reverence, and admire Thee; and to worship, serve, and obey Thee; to walk humbly, and sincerely, and lawfully, before Thee as being present with me, and beholding me; to love and adore Thee, as the fountain of all being and good. When I looked upon ‘the glory and usefulness of the sun, I admired the God that made it, chalked out its motions, placed it in that due distance from the earth, for its use and conveniency. When I looked upon the stars, those huge and wonderful balls of light, placed at that immense distance from the inferior bodies, and one from another, their multitude and motion; ‘I admired the wisdom and power of that God, whose hand spans the heavens, and has fixed every thing in its place. Nay, when I looked upon the poor little herbs that arise out of the earth, and considered the secret spark of life, which is in every one of them, that attracts, increaseth. groweth, produces seed, preserves them and their kinds; the various virtues that are in them, for the food, medicine, and delight, of the more perfect creatures ; my mind was sweetly carried up, to the adoration and praise of that God, whose wisdom, and power, and influence, and government, are seen in these footsteps of his goodness. So that take all the wisest and ablest men, the most powerful and the most knowing, under heaven, they cannot all equal the wisdom and power, that are seen in a blade of grass. Nay, they cannot so much as trace out, or clearly and distinctly decypher, the great varieties in the production, growth and process of its short, yet wonderful continuance. Insomuch, that there is scarce any thing upon earth, be it ever so inconsiderable, but yields me inscriptions of the power and wisdom of its Maker written upon it.

4. In the contemplation of thy great works of the heavens, these goodly, beautiful and numerous bodies, so full of glory and light, I could not but. make that natural reflection, " Lord, what is man, that. thou art mindful of him, or the son of man, that thou regardest him” it is true, man, considered in himself, is a creature full of wonder; but compared with these goodly creatures, he seems but an inconsiderable thing. I learned hereby, to be humbled to the dust, and to adore thy condescension, that thou art pleased from heaven, the dwelling-place of thy Majesty, to take care of such a worm as man, sinful man!

5. in the contemplating thy power and wisdom, in creating and governing the world, I have learned submission to thy will, as being the will of that most wise God, that by his wisdom, not only created at first, but still governs all things. I have learned to depend upon thy providence, who, though I am but a worm, in comparison of thy heavenly works, yet am an excellent creature in comparison of the ravens, and the herbs of the field. Yet, those he feeds, and these he clothes: and shall he not much more clothe and feed me Thus I have, in some measure, improved the talents of thy works, to trace out thy Majesty and my own duty.

Now is it vain or fruitless labour, thus to survey the wonderful works of God And yet it is certain, we may run to excess,, even in inquiries of this nature. We may spend far more time and pains therein, than is consistent either with religion or reason. Have we not a curious instance of this in the writings of a late eminent philosopher; at the same time, a divine by profession, and rector of a considerable parish. “ During the whole time,” says he, “that I have resided here, [have not been able by all my industry, to discover any more than fifty-three species (of butterflies!) in this neighbourhood. But, I verily believe, if God spares my life a few years longer, I shall be able to find several more !“ Was it not a pity, but his life should. have been spared fifty years for so excellent a purpose’ To those who lean on this extreme, I would recommend a few more reflections, extracted from the same masterly writer.

1. My learning of natural causes and effects, and of arts and sciences, I have not esteemed to be the chief, or the best furniture of my mind: but have accounted them dross in comparison of the knowledge of Thee, and thy Christ, and him crucified. In acquiring them, I have always taken care, 1. That I might not too prodigally bestow my Lime upon them, to the prejudice of that time and pains, which were most profitably bestowed, on the acquiring of more excellent knowledge, and the greater conceraments of my everlasting happiness.

2. I carried along with me, in all my studies of this kind, the great design of improving them, and the knowledge acquired by them, to the honour of thy name, and the greater discovery of thy wisdom, power and truth; and so translated my secular learning, into an improvement of divine knowledge. And had I not ever preserved that design in my acquirement of natural knowledge, I should have accounted all the time misspent which had been employed therein.. For I ever thought it unworthy of a man, who had an everlasting soul, to furnish it with such learning, as either would die with the body, and has become unuseful for his everlasting state, or that in the next moment after death, would be attained without labour.

3. My knowledge did not heighten my opinion of myself; for the more I knew, the more I knew my own ignorance. I was more and more convinced, that I was very ignorant, even in what I thought I knew. And I found an infinite latitude of things, which I did not know at all. Yea, the farther I waded into knowledge, the deeper still I found it. And it was with me just as it was with a child, that thinks, if he could but come to such a field, or climb to the top of such a hill, he should be able to touch the sky. But no sooner is he come thither, than he finds it as far off as it was before. Just so, while my mind was pursuing knowledge, I found the object still as far before me as it was, if not much farther; and could no more attain the full and exact knowledge of any one subject, than the hinder wheel of a chariot can overtake the former. Though I knew much, that others were ignorant of,  yet still I found there was much more, whereof! was ignorant, than what I knew, even in the compass of the most inconsiderable subject. And as my very knowledge taught me humility, in the sense, of my own ignorance, so it taught me the narrowness of my understanding which could take in things only by little and little. It taught me, that thy wisdom was unsearchable, and past finding out,: yea, and that thy works though they are but finite in themselves, and necessarily short of the infinite wisdom that contrived them, are yet so wonderful, as fully to confirm the observation of the wise man, “No man can find out the work that thou makest, from the beginning to the end.” If a man were to spend his whole life, in the study of a poor fly, he will still leave much more undiscovered, than the most singular wit ever attained.

4 It taught me also, with the wise man, (when I looked back on what I had attained) to write vanity and vexation, upon all my secular knowledge and learning. That little I knew, was not attained without much labour, nor yet free from much uncertainty. And the great remainder, which I knew not, rendered that I knew, poor and inconsiderable.

5. Hence, I most evidently conclude, that the perfection of my understanding was not to be found; as neither my happiness,, in this kind of knowledge; in a knowledge thus sensibly mixed with ignorance, in the things I seemed to know, mingled with pain and dissatisfaction, in respect of the things I knew not. And the more I knew, the more impatient my mind was, to know what I knew not. My knowledge did rather enlarge my desire of knowing than satisfy me.  The most intemperate sensual appetite, was more capable of being satisfied by what it enjoyed, than my intellectual appetite was, of being satisfied with the things I knew. The, enlarging my understanding with knowledge, did but enlarge the desire I had to know. So that the answer which was returned to Job, upon his inquisition after wisdom., “The depth saith, it is not in me; and the sea saith, it is not in me.” The same account, all my several kinds of knowledge gave, when I inquired for satisfaction in them. My metaphysics, when I had perused great volumes of it, was so mercurial, I could hardly hold it; and yet so endless, that the more I read or thought of it, the more I might. Natural philosophy, almost in every branch, was full of uncertainty. Much of it was grounded on suppositions impossible to he experimented. The latter philosophers censured the former, and departed from them. The latest, despised and rejected both, as equally ignorant. The subject to be treated of, was as vast, as the visible or tangible universe. And yet, every individual thing was so complicated, that if all the rest were omitted, this alone had more lines concentred in it, than any one age could sift to the bottom. Yet, any one lost, or not exactly scanned, left all the rest precarious and uncertain. And what could we expect to know, while we know not ourselves, not even our own bodies Yet none could ever do this: the disquisition concerning any one part of the human body, the brain, the eye, the blood, the nerves, utterly perplexed the most exact scrutators. But suppose it were otherwise: suppose we could attain a full knowledge of philosophy, that we could master every branch thereof, yet three unhappinesses attended it:

First, That most parts of it are of little use: they are only known, that they may be known. That which is of ordinary, use, is soon attained, and by ordinary capacities the rest are little better than laborious trifles, curious impertinencies.

Secondly, That they serve only for this life: a separated soul, or a spiritualized body will not be concerned in them. But admit they should, yet thirdly, a greater measure of such knowledge will be attained, in one hour after our dissolution, than the toilsome expense of an age in this life would produce. What a deal of pains is taken’ here, concerning the habitableness of the moon, and other primary and secondary planets; concerning the nature, the magnitude, and the distance of the fixed stars: concerning the various influences of the heavenly bodies, in their oppositions, conjunctions, aspects When once the immortal has taken its flight through the stories of the heavens, in one moment all these will be known distinctly and evidently. All our doubts will be resolved, and our souls filled with light, without any mixture of darkness.

Upon all these considerations I concluded that my intellectual power, and the exercise of it in this life, was given for a certain, useful and becoming object, “even to know Thee, the only true God, ad Jesus Christ, whom thou has sent.” In many parts of the preceding tract, I have occasionally touched on the littleness of human knowledge. Perhaps, a few more observations on this important head, may not be unacceptable to the serious reader. I propose them barely as hints, which may be pursued at large, by men of reflection and leisure. To begin (where we ended before) with the things which are at the greatest distance from us. How far does the Universe extend, and where the limits of it Where did the Creator “stay his rapid wheels “ Where “fix the golden compasses “ Certainly, himself alone is without bonds, but all his works are finite. Therefore he must have said at some point of space, “Be these thy bounds This be thy just circumference, O World “

But where, who can tell Only the morning stars who then sang together, the sons of God, who then shouted for joy. All beyond the region of the fixed stars is utterly hid from the children of men. And what do we know of the fixed stars A great deal, one would imagine : since, like the Most High, we too tell their number, yea, and call them all by their names! Those at least, which appear to the naked eye, both in the northern and southern hemisphere. But what are these, in comparison of those which our glasses discover, even in an inconsiderable part of the firmament What are one and two and twenty hundred, to those which we discover in the Milky Way alone How many are there then in the whole expanse, in the boundless field of ether But to what end do they serve, to illuminate worlds To impart light and heat to their several choirs of planets Or (as. the ingenius Mr. Hutchinson supposes) to gild the extremities of the solar sphere, which, according to him, is the only inhabited part of the universe; and to minister in some unknown way, to the perpetual circulation of light and spirit! For our sakes only, that great man apprehends the comets also to run their amazing circuits! But what are comets Planets not fully formed; or planets destroyed by a conflagration Or bodies of an wholly different nature, of which, therefore, we can form no idea How easy is it to form a thousand conjectures: bow hard to determine any thing concerning them! Can their huge revolutions be even tolerably accounted for, by the principles of gravitation and projection Has not Dr. Rogers overturned the very foundation of this fashionable hypothesis What then brings them back, when they have travelled so immensely far beyond the sphere of the solar attraction And what whirls them on, when by the laws of gravitation, they would immediately drop into the solar fire

What is the sun itself It is undoubtedly the most glorious of all the inanimate creatures. And its use we know. God made it to rule the day. It is “Of this great world, both eye and soul.” But who knows of what substance it is composed Or even, whether it be fluid or solid! What are those spots on his surface that are continually changing What are those that always appear in the same place What is its real magnitude Which shall we embrace, amidst the immense variety of opinions Mr. Whiston, indeed says, that eminent astronomers are nearly agreed upon this head. But they cannot agree concerning his magnitude, till they agree concerning his distance. And how far are they from this t he generality of them believe, that he is near a hundred millions of miles from the earth. Others suppose it to be twenty, some twelve millions, and last comes Dr. Rogers, and brings a clear and full demonstration, so he terms it, that they. are not three millions from each other. What an unbounded field for conjecture is here! But what foundation for real knowledge

Just as much do we know of the feebly shining bodies that move regularly round the sun : of Jupiter, Saturn, and other planets. Their revolutions we are acquainted with. But who is able, to this day, regularly to demonstrate either their magnitude or their distance Unless he will prove, as is the usual way, the magnitude from the distance, and the distance from the magnitude : and what are Jupiter’s belts Can any man tell What is Saturn’s ring The honest ploughman knows as well as the deepest philosopher. How many satellites, secondary planets, move round Jupiter or Saturn Are we sure even of their number How much less of their nature, sizes motions, or distances from the primary! But what wonder we are so ignorant concerning Saturn’s moons, when we know so little of our own For although some men of genius have not only discovered but have travelled over the whole hemisphere which is obverted to us, (and why is the same hemisphere always obverted What reason can be assigned, why we do not see the other hemisphere in its turn) have marked out all her seas and continents, with the utmost exactness: yea, and carried selenography to so great perfection, as to give us a complete map of the moon: yet do others (and not without reason) doubt, Whether she has any atmosphere. And if she has not any. she can have no rain or dews, nor consequently either seas or rivers. So that after all, we have nothing more than mere conjectures, concerning the nearest of all the HEAVENLY BODIES.

“Rivers and mountains on her spotty globe.”

What is it that contains them all in their orbits And what is the principle of their MOTIONS By what created power, what outward or inward force, are they thrown forward to such a point, and then brought back again to a determinate distance from the central fire. Dr. Rogers has evidently demonstrated, that no conjunction of the centrifugal and centripetal force, can possibly account fur this, or ever cause any body to move in an ellipsis. Will LIGHT moving outward, and returning inward in the form of SPIRIT, account for them ‘ Nay, if they take away some, they plunge us into other difficulties, no less’ considerable. So that there is reason to fear, that even the NEWTONIAN, yea, and HUTCHINSONIAN system, however plausible and ingenious, and whatever advantage they may have in several particulars, are yet no more capable of solid, convincing proof, than the PTOLEMAIC OF CARTESIAN. But let us come to things that are nearer home, and see what knowledge we have of them. And how much do we know of that wonderful body. that enables me to see and know all things around us I mean LIGHT T. How is it communicated to us Does it flow in a lucid river, in continued stream from the orb of’ the sun to the earth Or does the sun impel those particles only, which are contiguous to his orb, which impel others, so on and on, to the extremity of his system Again, are the particles of light, naturally and ESSENTIALLY LUCID Or only by accident, when they are collected Or when put into motion Yet again, does light GRAVITATE or not Does it ATTRACT other bodies, or REPEL them Is it the strongest, or the only repellent in nature, and what communicates that power to all repellents in nature Is this power the same with electricity, or wherein does it differ therefrom Is light subject to the GENERAL LAWS, which obtain in all other matter Or is it a body sui generis, altogether different from all other bodies Is it the same, or how does it differ from ETHER Sir Isaac Newton’s SUBTILE MATTER What is ETHER Wherein does it differ from the ELECTRIC FLUID Who can explain (and demonstrate the truth of his explanation) the phenomena of electricity Why do some substances CONDUCT the electric matter, and others arrest its course Why does a globe of glass and another of sulphur just counteract each other. Why is the coated phial capable of being charged just to such a point, and no farther 0 crux philosophorum! Superabundant proof of the shortness of human knowledge! But let us consider what is not of so subtile a nature, nor therefore so liable to elude our inquiries. Surely we understand the AIR we breathe, and which encompasses us on every side. By its ELASTICITY, it seems to be the grand mover and general spring of all sublunary nature. But is elasticity essential to air, and consequently inseperable from it Not so. It has been lately proved, by numberless experiments, that it may be FIXED, divested of its elasticity, and GENERATED or restored to it anew. Therefore elasticity is not essential to air, any more than fluidity is to water. Is it then elastic any otherwise than as it is joined to another body As every particle of air is, in its ordinary state, attached to a particle of ether or electric lire, does it not derive its whole elasticity from this, (perhaps the only true, essential elastic in nature) and consequently, when separated from this, lose all its elastic force For want of which it. is then effete, and will neither sustain flame, nor the life of animals. By what powers do the dew, the rain, the other vapours, rise and fall in the air Can we account for all the phenomena of them, upon the common principles And can we demonstrate that this is the true, the most rational way of accounting for them Or shall we say with a late ingenious writer, that those principles are utterly insufficient and that they cannot be accounted for at all, but upon the principles of electricity Do we thoroughly understand the nature and properties of the atmosphere that surrounds us That immense congeries, not only of air and vapours, whether of a watery or inflammable nature, but likewise of effluvia of every kind, which are continually streaming out from solid as well as fluid bodies, in all parts of the terraqueous globe Do all our instruments, with all the improvements of them, suffice to give us a thorough knowledge of its constituent parts Do they inform us of their innumerable combinations and changes, with the remote and immediate causes of them Very far from it ; and yet it is not a barely curious knowledge, but useful in the highest degree : seeing for want of it, not only various diseases, but often kath itself ensues.

Let us descend to what is of a still more firm and stable nature, and subject to the scrutiny of all our senses: namely, the earth we tread upon, and which God hath peculiarly given to the children of men. Do the children of men understand this Of what parts then is it composed I speak now of its internal parts, in comparison of which the surface is next to nothing. Many arguments induce us to believe that the earth is between seven and eight thousand miles in diameter. How much of this do we know Perhaps some cavities, natural or artificial, which have been examined by men, descend one, or even two miles beneath its surface. But what lies beneath these Beneath the region of fossils, of stones, metals and minerals These being only a thin exterior crust. Whereof consist the inner parts of the globe Of a nucleus, (as an eminent man supposes, in order to account for the variation of’ the needle,) and a luminous medium interposed between that and the outer shell Or is there a central fire, a grand reservoir, which supplies all the burning mountains : as well as ministers to the ripening of gems and metals, if not of vegetables also Or is the great deep still contained in the bowels of the earth, a central abyss of waters Who bath seen; who can tell; who can give any solid satisfaction to a rational inquirer But what wonder if we are ignorant of its internal nature For how many parts are there on the surface of the globe, which after alt the discoveries of later ages, are still utterly unknown to us How very little do we know of the polar regions, either in Europe or Asia In Asia particularly, where all but the seacoast, is mere terra incognita How little do we know of the inland parts either of Africa or America Either of the soil, the climate, the fruits, the animals, or the human inhabitants. So far are we from having any proper knowledge of these, that we can scarce form any rational conjecture about them. And who knows what is contained in the broad sea, in the abyss that covers so large a part of the globe Many indeed, go down to the sea in ships, and occupy their business in the great waters. But what know they of what is contained therein: either of its animal inhabitants, its productions of the vegetable kind, or those of a mineral r metallic nature Most of its chambers are inaccessible to man, so that how they are furnished, we know not. Leviathan may take his pastime therein: but they are not designed for the children of men. But let us come nearer home. How little do we know even of the furniture of the dry land Survey those things which fall directly under our notice, even the most simple stones, metals, minerals. How exceeding imperfectly are we acquainted with their nature and properties! What is there in the inward constitution of metals, which distinguishes them from all other fossils From stones in particular “Why, they are heavier.” True, but what makes them heavier I doubt whether Solomon himself was able to assign the reason. What is the original internal difference between gold and silver, or between tin and lead ‘Tis all mystery to the sons of men. And yet vain man would be wise!

“If all the men in the world,” says the great Mr. Boyle, “were to spend their whole lives in the search, they would not be able to find out all the properties of that single mineral, ANTIMONY.” And if all men could know so little of one thing, how little can one know of all

Let us proceed to the higher parts of the creature. Observe the vegetable kingdom. And here also, whatever displays the wisdom of the Creator, discovers the ignorance of’ his creature. Who can clearly determine even the fundamental question, concerning the general nature of vegetables. Does the sap perform a regular circulation through their vessels or not How plausible arguments have been brought, both on the one side and the other Who knows the several species of vegetables, from the cedar of Lebanon to the hyssop on the wall Or rather, if we would descend from the highest to the lowest, to the innumerable grove of plants which appear in the form of mouldiness; or those more innumerable, if the expression may be allowed, which do not appear to the naked eye at all Who is able to discover the proper specific difference, between any one kind of plant and another Or the peculiar internal conformation and disposition of their component particles Yea, what man upon earth thoroughly understands the nature and properties of any one plant under heaven.

Ascend we higher still from plants to animals. But here we are stopped in the midway. Under which of these shall we place the innumerable tribes of microscopic animals, so called Are they real animals in the common sense of the word Or are they animals in quite another sense: essentially different from all other species of animals in the universe: as neither requiring any food to sustain them, nor generating or being generated Are they no animals at all, (according to the supposition of a late ingenious writer) but merely inanimate particles of matter, in a state of fermentation So much may be said for each of these opinions, that it is not easy to fix upon any of them.

If they are animals of a peculiar kind, which neither generate, nor are generated, they spread a veil over one continued branch of human ignorance. For how totally ignorant are the most sagacious of men, touching the whole affair of generation I do not say the generation of insects and fishes: the countless fry, “That by unnumber’d millions multiply. But let us come to that of the most perfect animals, yea, of man himself. In the book of the Creator, indeed, were all ours members written; which day by day were fashioned. But by what rule were they fashioned In what manner By what degrees from the moment of impregnation Who can explain “How the dim speck of entity began, To extend its recent form, and swell to man.” By what means was the first motion communicated to the punctum sallens When and how was the immortal spirit added to the mass of senseless clay There is no need of descending to particulars : for ‘tis mystery all! And after all our researches, we can only say, “I am fearfully and wonderfully made !“ But is there any such thing as equivocal generation, whether of plants or animals it is impossible any thing can appear more absurd to the eye of reason. Was there ever an instance since the world began, that a house grew of itself Nay, so much as a bed, a table, a chair, or the smallest particle of household furniture. And yet how trifling and inartificial is the construction of these to that of the meanest plant or animal What is the workmanship of Whitehall or Westminster abbey, to that of a tree or a fly And yet, on the other hand, if we deny spontaneous generation, what difficulties surround us If we can give a plausible account of the propagation of misselto on trees, and a few of the plants growing on the tops of house or on the walls of churches and towers, yet how many more confound all our sagacity And how many animals are discovered in such places as no animal of that kind ever frequented With regard to the lowest class of animals, INSECTS, almost innumerable are the discoveries which have been made within a few years, particularly by the ingenious and indefatigable Mr. Reaumur : but how inconsiderable is all this, in comparison of that which still remains undiscovered How many SPECIES, how many entire genera of these are we totally unacquainted with How many millions, by their extreme minuteness, elude our most careful inquiries And the minuter parts of larger animals, escape our utmost diligence so that all we can attain to, is an imperfect knowledge of what is obvious in their composition. Have we a more perfect knowledge of FISHES than of insects How many inhabitants of the waters, entirely concealed from human view, by the element wherein they live It is not permitted to the sons of men, to “ walk through the paths of the sea,” nor consequently to trace out their several kinds or species with any exactness. But it is highly probable these are far more numerous than the species of land animals: as the distance between the smallest and the largest of sea animals, is so immensely great; from the MINNOW, for instance, (though this is far from being the least) to the NORWEGIAN WHALE: to say nothing of Bishop Pontoppidan’s CRAKEN and SEA-SERPENT, which I doubt never existed but in his own imagination. And, with regard to the species we are acquainted with, how little is it that we know Only a few of their general properties: enough to satisfy our need, but not our curiosity.

We are something better acquainted with the inhabitants of the air; BIRDS being more accessible to us: yet upon the whole, we are very far from being perfectly .acquainted with them. Of many we know little more than the outward shape. We know a few of the obvious properties of others, but the inward, specific difference of very few. And we have a thorough, adequate knowledge of none.

“However, we have a more extensive knowledge of BEASTS, many of which are our domestic companions.” Certainly we have. And yet a thousand questions may be asked even concerning these, which we are in nowise able to answer. To touch only on two or three general heads. Do they REASON, or do they not Whence arise the different QUALITIES and TEMPERS, not only in different kinds and species; but even in the individuals of one species, as in dogs, eats, and horses Are they MERE MACHINES If we assert they. are, it inevitably follows that they neither SEE, nor HEAR., nor SMELL, NOR FELL. For of this, mere machines are utterly Incapable. Much less than they KNOW or REMEMBER any thing, or MOVE any otherwise than they are impelled. But all this, as numberless experiments show, is quite contrary to matter of fact. On the other hand, IT they are not mere machines ; if they have either sensation, or knowledge, or memory, or a principle of self motion, then they are not mere matter: they have in them an immaterial principle. But of what kind Will it die with the body, or not Is it mortal or immortal Here again we have got into an unknown path. We cannot order our speech by reason of darkness. But although we know so little of the things that are above us; of those that are beneath us ; or of those that surround us on every side: yet it is to be hoped, we know OURSELVES ; and of all, this is the most useful, the most necessary knowledge. But do we truly know our. selves Do we know the most excellent part of ourselves, oar own soul That it is a spirit, we know. But what is a spirit H ere again we are at a full stop. And WHERE is the soul LODGED in the pineal gland The whole brain In the heart! The blood In any single part of the body Or, is it (if any one can understand those terms) all in all, and all in every part How is it UNITED to the body What is the secret chain, what the bands, that couple them together Can the wisest of men give a satisfactory answer, even to these few. plain questions As to the BODY, we glory in having attained abundantly more knowledge than the ancients. By our glasses we have discovered very many things, which we suppose they were wholly unacquainted with. But have we discovered, why we perspire three parts in four less, when we sweat than when we do not What a total mistake is it then to suppose sweat is only an increase of insensible perspiration! Have we discovered, why one part of mankind have black skins, and the other white It is not owing to the climate: for both black men and white are born in the same latitude. And have not negroes the same flesh and blood with us But what is FLESH That of the muscles in particular Are the fibres, out of which it is woven, of a determinate size So that when you have divided them into smaller and smaller, to a certain point, you come to those of the smaller kind Or are they resolvable (at least in their own nature) into smaller and smaller in infinitum How does a MUSCLE ACT If you say, by being inflated, and consequently shortened: I ask again, But what is it inflated with If with blood, how and whence comes that blood And what becomes of that blood; whither does it go, the moment the muscle is relaxed What is BLOOD Of how many sorts of particles does it essentially consist Of red globules and serum But in the famous instance, the man bled at the nose, till what was discharged had no redness left, By what force is the circulation of the blood performedCan any one suppose the force of the heart is sufficient to overcome the resistance of all the arteriesAre the NERVES pervious or solidHow do they actBy vibration or transmission of the animal spiritsIf they have any beings, are they of the nature of blood or etherWhat is SLEEPWherein does it consistWe do not inquire, What are the effects of it (cessation of voluntary motion and so on,) but what is the thing itself, the cause of these effectsWhat is DREAMINGBy what criterion can we distinguish dreams from waking thoughts I mean by what means may a dreaming person then know that he is in a dreamWhat is (the eonsanguineus somni) DEATH When do we dieYou say, “ When the soul leaves the body.”This cannot be denied.But my question is, When does the soul leave the bodyWhen we cease to breathe, according o the maxim, nullus spiritus, nulla vitaThis will not hold for many have revived after respiration was utterly ceased.When the circulation of the blood stopsNay, neither will this hold: for many have recovered after the pulse was quite gone.When the vital warmth ceases, and have juices lose their fluidityEven this is not a certain mark. For some have revived after the body was quite cold and stiff: a case not uncommon in Sweden.By what token than can we surely knowIt seems, none such can be found.God knows then the Spirit returns to him: And the spirit to itself: but none that dwells in a body.

What cause have we then to adore the wisdom of God, who has so exactly proportioned our knowledge to our state!We may know whatever is needful for life or godliness, whatever is necessary either for our present or eternal happiness.But how little beside can the most penetrating genius know with any certaintySuch pains, so to speak, hath God taken to hide pride from man!And to bound his thought within that channel of knowledge, wherein he already finds eternal life. THE END