OF THE NATURAE ANS

I98

The fides, which watch him in his new abode,Measuring his motions by revolving spheres ;

That horologe machinery divine.

Hours, days, and months, and years, his children, playLike numerous wings around him, as he flies:

Or rather, as unequal plumes, they shapeHis ample pinions, swift as darted flame,

To gain his goal, to reach his ancient rest,

And join anew eternity his lire.

What is to be understood from this passage itis not easy to say. The book, however, con-tains much better things; some of his thoughtsbeing highly sublime and poetical: but his phi-losophical notions are, in general, affectedly my-,sterious and obscure.

1 have mentioned these things, merely to shewyou what insuperable difficulties we have to en-counter, when we attempt to carry our specula-tions and enquiries beyond their assigned bounds.Properties and effects are all that we are ac-quainted with : the nature and causes of thingsare entirely hid from us, and it is in vain toseek after them. The great Maclaurin, whosemind was as elegant and refined, as it was pene-trating and comprehensive, does not, whilst heis treating on this subject, attempt to give astrict and scientific definition of time. Aftermaking a number of judicious observations uponthe certainty we have of our own existence, andthe manner in which external objects act uponthe mind, he expresses himself as follows.

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