dently suggested by the principle just now advanced.

At this early period of life then, the judgment being not sufficiently matured for deeper observation, the mind is satisfied with a view of the form and surface of objects presented to it; with their anatomy, as it were, rather than with their physiology: but, in the mean time, it is thus acquainting itself undistractedly with those sensible qualities, with which it must necessarily be familiar before it can proceed to reason on causes and relations. And although it may appear at first view that a very disproportionately long period of our life is devoted to the mere exercise of the senses, it is yet highly probable that important mental operations may be simultaneously going on, though we are at the time unconscious of them: for something analogous is observable throughout the whole course of our existence. How few there are, for instance, who, at any period of life, can call to mind a tenth part of what they have even recently heard or observed. And if this may be correctly affirmed of the adult age of life, and of those individuals whose original powers of mind are great, how much more strongly will it apply to those whose original powers of mind are not above the common standard, or not yet matured by age. So that there can be very little doubt that the general principles and rules, which regulate the rea

soning and conduct of men on ordinary occasions, have been originally deduced by each individual from much of what has been long forgotten.

It has been asserted by persons, whose intellectual powers were of the highest order, and whose industry was as remarkable as their abilities, that more than six or eight hours in each day could not be employed effectively by the generality of young men for the purpose of mental improvement. If this however be the case, and as a general position it probably is not very far from the truth, in vain does the ambitious student rob nature of that sleep which Providence has made necessary for the renovation of the exhausted powers of our mind, as well as of our body; and in vain also does he attempt to combine simultaneously the efforts of mental attention with bodily exercise, or to pursue his severer studies during the hour of meals: in both which cases, they, who adopt the custom, not only err in employing too continuous an application of the powers of the mind; but in impeding to a certain and often very inconvenient degree the process of natural respiration; and, consequently, of other functions of the body, particularly of digestion. How main a point

c Lord chief justice Hale; (see Boswell's Life of Johnson, vol. ii. p. 511, 4to. London, 1791;) not to mention living authorities.

ought it to be therefore with those who superintend the education of young persons, to avoid the application of too great a strain on the natural spring of the intellectual powers.

It is questionable whether at any period of life the correspondence between the external world and the sensitive and intellectual faculties of man, is so rapid, so vivid, and so effectual, as during that space which is intermediate to infancy and adolescence: and this fact, if it be so, may be explained by that principle of our nature, on which depends the love of novelty; namely, that susceptibility of the nerves which makes them capable of being stimulated more vehemently by new, than by accustomed impressions for certainly this principle is likely to be more exercised in proportion as we are nearer the period of infancy; since every impression is then either absolutely new, or has not yet rendered the nerves dull by too frequent a repetition of its application. Another happy instance of the harmony that exists between the nature of man and the external world, is the readiness and confidence with which at this early period of life the impressions of sense are received. Where all is new, and therefore equally matter of wonder, there is yet no room for doubt. Nature teaches the mind to receive every thing without distrust, and to rely implicitly on those inlets to knowledge, the impressions of sense,

which are destined to be its only guides in the first years of life. Scepticism is not the tendency ›f childhood: and perhaps it is with reference to the analogy between the eye of faith and the eye of sense at this early period of life, that our Saviour pronounces a blessing upon those who receive the evidences of our religion with the simplicity of little children.

CHAP. III.

On the Powers of the human Hand, considered as a corporeal Organ.

AT length however, having passed the preparatory discipline both of natural and of parental education, and having arrived at the maturity of his powers, man is fitted to exercise his empire over the external world.

But before we consider the character of the materials provided for the supply of his various wants, or for the exercise of his intellectual faculties, let us examine more closely than hitherto the condition of those corporeal organs, by the agency of which he is enabled to produce the results intended.

There can be no doubt that those organs are, if not exclusively, at least preeminently, the brain and the hand: of the latter of which, not only are the uses of the several parts and

of the whole made practically manifest every moment of our lives; but its antecedent capabilities are so open to the investigating eye of reason, as to afford one of the readiest subjects of physical demonstration. And although, with respect to the brain, we not only have no satisfactory evidence, but cannot even form a probable conjecture, of the use or mode of action of any particular part; yet we cannot doubt that it is the instrument by which our intellectual powers hold communion with external nature. I shall dedicate therefore this and the following chapter to the consideration of the general history of these organs.

It would be an invasion of the province of others to give an anatomical description of the several constituent parts of the human hand: but in saying that its adaptation to the various purposes to which it is applicable is so open to the investigating eye of reason, as to afford one of the readiest subjects of physical demonstration, a tacit reference was made to that remarkable part of the writings of Galen, in which he expatiates upon the capabilities of this wonderful instrument: and that that extraordinary writer could hardly have selected a better subject, for the exercise of his powers in intellectual analysis, will be readily granted on a perusal of the following passages; provided they correctly represent the spirit of the original.