favour above all things. And, while we endeavour to make a right ufe of the rules he has prefcribed, or given us grace to discover, for purifying and improving our nature, let us look up for aid to Him, whose influence alone can render them fuccessful.

OF

OF

DREAMING.*

N

But,

ATURE does nothing in vain. from the imperfection of our knowledge, we often mistake final causes, and are too apt to pronounce that useless, of which we do not perceive the ufe: which is not lefs abfurd in many cafes, than if a man born blind were to deny the utility of light, or the beauty of. colour. In the shop of a watchmaker, or of any artist who employs himself in complex mechanifm, how many wheels are there, and pegs, and utenfils, whereof a clown cannot conceive to what purpose they are to be applied! How

Extracts from this difcourfe were printed in a periodical paper called The Mirror. The whole is here given, as it was at first composed.

many

many parts are there of the human body, which anatomists only can explain! and how many, which the moft learned of that profeffion cannot fully account tor! Shall we therefore imagine, that any of thofe parts are fuperfluous or useless?

A king in Spain is faid to have cenfured the arrangement of the planetary fyftem; impiously afferting, that he could have made a more regular world himself. His prefumption, we know, was the effect of ignorance: he took upon him to find fault with that which he did not underftand. Had he known the true astronomy, he must have been overwhelmed with astonishment, at the regularity, with which the heavenly bodies perform their revolutions.

In fact, the more we understand nature, the more we admire it. And when, among the works of God, any thing occurs, of which we perceive not the neceffity, or the propriety, it becomes us humbly to confefs our ignorance, For what are we, that we fhould prefume to cavil at the difpenfations of infinite wifdom!

Man's knowledge is progreffive. How many things are known to us, which were unknown to the antients! What at prefent feems of little value, may hereafter be found of the greateft. Many countries are uninhabited now, which before the end of the world may fupport millions of human creatures, and give rife to new arts and fciences, and other wonderful inventions.

Thefe remarks we ought never to lofe fight of, in philofophical inquiry; efpecially, when we

are

are at a lofs to explain final caufes. Our knowledge of thefe will always be in proportion to our knowledge of nature. For, if we be in any degree ignorant of the form and ftructure of a thing, we must in the fame degree be ignorant of the end for which it was made, and the uses to which it may be applied. Were it required of us, to find out the ufe of a machine, which we had never before feen or heard of; the first thing we should do would be, to examine its nature, that is, the form, connections, and tendency of its feveral parts. If we will not take the trouble to do this, or if we have not mechanical skill to qualify us for it, what title have we to affirm, that the machine is ufelefs, or imperfect? As well may a blind man find fault with my complexion, or a deaf man condemn a fymphony of mufical inftruments.

Though there are not many natural appearances more familiar to us than DREAMING, there are few which we lefs understand. It is a faculty, or an operation of our minds, of which we can hardly fay, whether or not it be fubfervient, either to action, or to knowledge. But we may be affured, it is not without its ufes, though we fhould never be able to difcover them.

I fhall not trouble the reader with the opinions of the antients, in regard to the immediate caufe of Dreaming. Epicurus fancied, that an infinite multitude of fubtle images; fome flowing from bodies, fome formed in the air of their own accord, and others made up of different things variously combined, are always moving up and down around us: and that thefe images, being of extreme fineness, penetrate our bodies, and,

ftriking