HISTORY OF ASTRONOMY. l5*

wondering at fome new object, and which arethe natural fymptoms of uncertain and undeter-mined thought. What fort of a thing can thatbe ? What is that like? are the queftions which,upon fuch an occafion, we are all naturally dif-pofed to afk. If we can recollect many fuch ob-jets which exactly refemble this new appearance,and which prefent themfelves to the imaginationnatuTally, and as it were of their own accord,our Wonder is entirely at an end. If we can recollectbut a few, and which it requires too fome trou-ble to be able to call up, our Wonder is indeeddiminillied, but not quite deftroyed. If we canrecollect none, but are quite at a lofs, it is thegreateft poffible.

With what curious attention does a naturaliftexamine a lingular plant, or a fmgular foffil, thatis prefented to him? He is at no lofs to refer itto the general genus of plants or foffils; but thisdoes not fatisfy him, and when he confiders allthe different tribes or fpecies of either with whichhe has hitherto been acquainted, they all, hethinks, refute to admit the new object amongthem. It Hands alone in his imagination, and asit were detached from all the other fpecies of thatgenus to which it belongs. He labors, however,to conneft it with fome one or other of them.Sometimes he thinks it may be placed in this,and fometimes in that other affortment; nor ishe ever fatisfied, till he has fallen upon one which,in moft of its qualities , it refembles. When hecannot do this, rather than it fliould ftand quite