Such, in dignity and grandeur, is the mind considered, even abstractedly. But when, instead of considering the mind itself, we look to the wonders which it has performed--the cities, the cultivated plains, and all the varieties of that splendid scene to which the art of man has transformed the deserts, and forests, and rocks of original nature; when we behold him, not limiting the operations of his art to that earth to which he seemed confined, but bursting through the very elements, that appeared to encircle him as an insurmountable barrier--traversing the waves--struggling with the winds, and making their very opposition subservient to his course; when we look to the still greater transformations which he has wrought in the _moral scene_, and compare with the miseries of barbarous life, the tranquillity and security of a well ordered state; when we see, under the influence of legislative wisdom, insurmountable multitudes obeying, in opposition to their strongest passions, the restraints of a power which they scarcely perceive, and the crimes of a single individual marked and punished, at the distance of half the earth; is it possible for us to observe all these wonders, and yet not to feel some curiosity to examine the faculties by which they have been wrought, some interest in a being so noble, that leads us to speculate on the future wonders which he may yet perform, and on the final destiny which awaits him? This interest we should feel, though no common tie connected us with the object of our admiration; and we cannot surely admit that the object of our admiration is less interesting to us, or less sublime in nature, because the faculties which we admire are those which ourselves possess, and the wonders such as we are capable of achieving and surpassing. FOOTNOTES: [14] Seneca, Ep. 108. [15] Dissertat. ab Arrian, collect, lib. i. c. 6.--p. 35. Edit. Upton. [16] Seneca de otio Sapent. c. 32. [17] Pope's Essay on Man, Ep. ii. v. 237-240, and 245-248. [18] Lect. III. [19] Can't injure. _Orig._ [20] Young's Night Thoughts, VI. v. 535-539. LECTURE V. ON THE NATURE OF PHYSICAL INQUIRY IN GENERAL.