agreeable an impression from those qualities, which constitute the beauty of the mind, body, or soul, when, at the same time, we do not perceive those secret relations to utility, which constitute their genuine worth? The source of this pleasure flows indubitably from the infinite wisdom of the Supreme Author of Nature, who has formed us in such a manner, that notwithstanding that self-love, which causes disagreements among men, yet they are members of the same body. Their felicities, as well as their misfortunes, are frequent, unless obstructed by their peculiar dispositions. Persons of delicate constitutions cannot behold others with fractured limbs, without a tender sympathy for the sufferings of their fellow-creatures; and though this impres

sion may not be felt so sensibly by robust persons, even they, in some degree, must feel it also.

Life, filled with Grief's distressful train,

For ever asks the tear humane.

O, for that sympathetic glow,
Which taught the holy tear to flow!

Painful sensations are not the only ones, which disperse themselves by a kind of infection; as we find from experience, that a lively humour and a cheerful disposition also impart similar feelings to those who come into our company.

In consequence of this, it is plain that the beauties of the body, of ideas, and of

the soul, make a pleasing impression on the spectator; because they rouse in his brain a motion which tends to communicate them to him, and will succeed, if not resisted, by particular dispositions.

It has been said, that geometry has the principal direction in the formation of the heavens; and we say, that harmony has been the chief tutoress in the construction of our brain. What ecstacy! what emotions are not excited by certain tunes! How much are we inspired with the love of dancing by music! How astonishing its power in the cure of certain disorders! This exercise of the brain, which so closely resembles that of the chords of an instrument, plainly shews that our brains are in reality a sort of instrument, supplied with chords com

posed of many nervous fibres of different tensions, and in course susceptible of a variety of vibrations. They impart their motions by the aid of the eyes and ears; and this they do with more ease, in proportion as they contain a greater number of chords, which act in concert together, as some of the chords are stronger and more able to move than others.

There are some souls, which engage each other with greater power than the loadstone does steel; and nothing can excel that facility, which those who love have in communicating their ideas to each other. Their brains seem to be

tuned in unison.

Mysterious round! what skill, what force divine

Deep felt in these appear!

There are others to whom nature seems to have given a kind of supremacy over the rest of mankind. By this means those of this class reduce men of the most heroic courage, as likewise the most powerful princes, to a state of abject slavery. It was the power of this charm which enabled Mahomet to defeat the constitution of Arabia, which he new-modelled at his pleasure. History informs us, that his dependents soon imbibed his sentiments. The fibres of their brains, susceptible of a similar and equal sprightly emotion, easily awakened a homogeneous sensation in the brains of those with whom they conversed.

But from mechanism does it proceed, that the vibrations of the fibres of the