"to complete the dominion of Man over the Earth and "the Ocean."-I have attempted to bring together, from a very imperfect recollection, a few of the principal traits of this noble picture. For the rest I must refer to the very eloquent work from which they are borrowed ;-recommending to my readers, if they should have the curiosity to consult the original, to observe (as a farther confirmation of the foregoing speculations) the elevation of style which the author maintains through the whole of his narrative; an elevation naturally inspired by the Sublimity of his subject; and which would have appeared wholly out of place, in tracing the origin and progress of any other branch of physical science, involved to the same degree in the technical mysteries of numbers and of diagrams *.

*Note (Mm)..

GENERAL OBSERVATIONS ON OUR ACQUIRED POWERS OF JUDGMENT. APPLICATION OF THESE TO THE SUBJECT OF THIS ESSAY.

In treating, on a former occasion, of the faculty of Attention, I endeavoured to illustrate those intellectual processes, which, by often passing through the mind, come at length to be carried on with a rapidity that eludes all our efforts to remark it; giving to many of our judgments, which are really the result of thought and reflection, the appearance of instantaneous and intuitive perceptions. The most remarkable instance of such processes which the history of the human un

derstanding affords, occurs in what are commonly called the acquired perceptions of sight; the theory of which has engaged the curiosity of many philosophers since the time of Berkeley, and seems to be now pretty generally understood. The other cases which I allude to, appear to me to be extremely analogous to these acquired perceptions, and to be explicable on the same general principles. The most material difference consists in this, that the acquired perceptions of sight are common to the whole human race; the common necessities of our nature forcing every man to cultivate, from early infancy, the habits by which they are formed; whereas the greater part of our other acquired judgments, being the result of habits connected with particular professions, or pur suits, are peculiar to certain classes of individuals.

Next to the acquired perceptions of sight, may be ranked, in point of rapidity, those processes of thought which pass through the mind, in the familiar operations of reading and of writing. In the former operation, the meaning of what we read seems to be seized at once with the instantaneousness of a perception. In the latter, as the train of our ideas proceeds, we find these ideas recorded upon paper, by an almost spontaneous movement of the hand;-a movement which has no more tendency to distract our attention, than the function of respiration, or the action of the heart. It is the familiarity alone of such phenomena, that prevents the

generality of men from reflecting on them with the wonder which they excite in the mind of the philosopher; and which will be found always to rise higher, in proportion to the accuracy of the analysis to which he subjects them.

But it is not as a subject of wonder only, that these phenomena ought to be regarded. The practical lesson which they suggest is of the highest importance; and is calculated to inspire us with new confidence and vigour, in the cultivation of whatever intellectual habits our situation in life may render it useful for us to possess. Such was the inference which was long ago drawn from them by Polybius, with a spirit of philosophical generalization, which is not often to be met with in ancient historians.

"It would be easy" (says this most judicious writer) " to "shew by instances, that many things which appear, in the beginning, to be not only difficult but absolutely imprac❝ticable, are, in the course of time, and by continued use,

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accomplished with the greatest ease. Among number"less instances, the art of reading may be mentioned as

one of the clearest and most convincing proofs of this re"mark. Take a man who has never learned to read, but " is otherwise a man of sense; set a child before him who “has learned, and order him to read a passage in a book. "It is certain, that this man will scarcely be able to persuade