INTRODUCTION.

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so general, that all men of letters, I believe, find themselvesinfluenced by it. Nor is it difficult to aflign a reason for this,if we consider only, that our desire after knowledge is an ef-fect of that taste for the sublime and the beautiful in things,which chiefly constitutes the difference between the humanlife, and the fife of brutes. These inferior animals partakewith us of the pleasures, that immediately flow from the bo-dily senses and appetites; but our minds are furnished with asuperior sense, by which we are capable of receiving variousdegrees of delight, where the creatures below us perceive nodifference. Hence arises that pursuit of grace and elegance inour thoughts and actions, and in all things belonging to 'us,which principally creates imployment for the active mind ofman. The thoughts of the human mind are too extensiveto be confined only to the providing and enjoying of what isnecessary for the support of our being. It is this taste, whichhas given rife to poetry, oratory, and every branch of litera-ture and science. From hence we seel great pleasure in con-ceiving strongly, and in apprehending clearly, even wherethe passions are not concerned. Perspicuous reasoning ap-pears not only beautiful ; but, when set forth in its fullstrength and dignity, it partakes of the sublime, and notonly pleases, but warms and elevates the foul. This is thesource of our strong desire of knowledge; and the fametaste for the sublime and the beautiful directs us to chuseparticularly the productions of nature for the subject of ourcontemplation : our creator having so adapted our minds tothe condition, wherein he has placed us, that all his visible

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works,