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Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
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Untitled Article
th # tfi&ti att totelfigftft frfenA in tefc tHfRj && 1 1 *^ bdV ' stfi £ ffictent itte # ^ o rir ^ l ^^ ¦ ''' / ' /'¦''' X / TZT ^ . J ^ ^' The first chapter is on the characters l ) y wli&it liffft ^^ jn ^ s ai ^ ai ^ tmg \ ji $ nea fro m inorganic bodies , ana animals from plants . It describes toe phenomena ot life . / - n . r
The second cUscripiinates between the 3 , pp § , r&t ^ s iW $ : gJ ^ HT&cteristips of the organic and the animal life > as conibi # ed h * man ; and tpatces their progress and decline . The natural history of death , with which this chapter concludes , has , as a composition , much of that singular and melancholy beauty wherewith a painter of genius would invest the personification of mortality . The third chapter treats of the ultimate object of Organization and life ; shows pleasure to be the direct , the ordinary , and the
gratuitous result of the action of the organs ; and in turn , conautfive to their developement and the continuance of tfreir action . Th 0 whole pf this chapter is an eloquent lecture on the raorality of nature , which is alike remote from that of the ascetic and of the sensualist , ft impressively portrays the superiority of intellectual over animal enjoyment , and of the sympathetic over the eel 6 sh propensities . We take a fragment of the former of these contrasts :
' But if the pleasures that arise from the ordinary operations of sense fbrtn , iri the aggregate , an incalculable sum , how great is tlie accession brought to tins stock by the endowments next in orfer in the ascefrdnig Scale , namely , the intellectual faculties ! r iThei ' e is one effect resulting from the operation of the intellectual faculties on Jhe senses that deserves particular attention . ^ The higher faculties' elevate the subordinate in such a manner as to mdke tnem altogether riew endowments , In illastration of this , it will suffice to
notice the change wrought , as if in the very nature of sensation , the moment it becomes combined with an intellectual operation , as exem |> lifi £ d iii the difference between the intellectual conception of beauty , and t | ie mere perceptipn of sense . Tlie grpuptng of the hills that typujad that magnificent vj ^ lpy which I beh ol d at tpi s moment spread put before my vieiv : the shadow of tbe trees at the fcas ^ of som e oflh em , stretching iid deep ind varied outline up the siqes qt others ; the giancipg light h 6 \ V brightening 11 hundred different hues of gteeni on ifie ^ bkq me ^ idoWs , and now dancing on the upland falloWfc ; the evefcnidvhVg , ever-chartgtng clouds ; the scented air ; the sotfg : tit brrd ^; the * istill more touching rtiMsic which the breeze awakens iti thfe scdrciely treftibHttg branches of tbo ^ e p it >^ tree s , —the elements of wHichthiia ^ etie f fkeottipoaed » sthe mere objects of sense , the siixi , the sky , tW anyllieftiiUs ^ the
woods , and the sounds poured out from them , impress the senies of the animal * that grage in the midst of them v but on th « ir »^» peg tliey Ml {§ y )\ Mfnd > vifchaut effect , editing no pevceptH Y » pi ^> f > th * iv A ^ ynlimftftt » n 4 jt ^ ipg -np t ^ ste of ^ ple ^ su r ^ \ h <* » ^ . WMP % rf ^ fivr ^ SNor © Veil iii the . humau beipg yvhpse ^ ntelleqtu al f ^ pi ^ ljti ^ s . W ^ % ^» MWWiWiied ^ iU ) they awaken either emptiQft * or ifc ™; tW jtoiyn % 9 them , nearB them , feels them no more than the herds he tends : yet in
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158 The PhUhsitph ^ of Health .
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), March 2, 1835, page 158, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2643/page/14/
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