20 HISTORY OR ASTRONOMY.

the iron ffiould move after the loadftone seems,upon this hypothefis, in some measure accordingto the ordinary course of things. Motion afterimpulfe is an order of succession with which of allthings we are the moft familiar. Two objectswhich are so connected seem no longer to be dis-jointed, and the imagination flows fmoothly andeasily along them.

Such is the nature of this fécond species ofWonder, which arises from an unufual fucceffionof things. The ftop which is thereby given to thecareer of the imagination, the difficulty which itfinds in paffing along fuch disjointed objects,and the feeling of something like a gap or inter-val betwixt them, constitute the whole essence ofthis emotion. :TJpon the clear discovery of a con-necting chain of intermediate events, it vaniflies al-together. What obstructed the movement of theimagination is then removed. Who wonders atthe machinery of the opera-house who has oncebeen admitted behind the scenes? In the Won-ders of nature, however, it rarely happens thatwe can discover so clearly this connecting chain.With regard to a few even of them, indeed, wefeem to have been really admitted behind thescenes, and our Wonder accordingly is entirelyat an end. Thus the eclipses of the fun andmoon, which once, more than all the other ap-pearances in the heavens, excited the terror andamazement of mankind, feem now no longer tobe wonderful, fince the connecting chain has beenfound out which joins them to the ordinary