in man, though we cannot form of it any more distinct conception than we can of the faculty of memory itself, or of the multiform phenomena which thought displays.

Here the objector will say to me,—in a sort of triumphant excitation, so then, agreeably to this speculation, and remark, the dog, the horse, and other animals, must inherit, modified to their nature and necessities, an immaterial principle; for they manifestly possess the faculty of memory. -I never have denied it.

Of an immaterial principle, it is true, that we cannot form any distinct conception; but this imbecility argues nothing against the reality of the principle; and it is very possible to imagine, that an essence too exquisite for comprehension, should possess faculties also beyond that comprehension, and, among these, the faculty of memory.

With palpable matter we are pretty well acquainted, and I doubt-strongly doubt whether a reasonable man can really settle in a belief, that any organization of brain, any " quintessence of dust, is capable of the phenomena of the human mind. We know no more of the living principle, than we do of an immaterial

principle; but where is the man who will deny the existence of the former ?-We are yet, even in the era 1823, mere babies in pneumatological science; in the knowledge even of our own animal economy; of the true causes of sanity and health; of the causes of indisposition and disease; of causes, almost without exception; and of primary physical principles, we know-nothing-yet we are progressive; accumulating, age by age, such addition to the stock of what we really know, as is of possible attainment, and adapted to our understandings, our advancements, and our wants.

MAGNIFICENCE.

THE operation of magnificence, extent or space, will greatly depend on the circumstances and habits of the eye to which they are presented. They may, indeed, exist and be gazed at by ANY eye without producing strong effect, and without leaving an impression of vastness on the mind. This will happen when the eye cannot ascertain a limitation to the magnificence, extent or space, nor the imagination properly conceive it. Under deprivations, such as these, they lose the regulated character, which distinct and well placed boundary would give thein, and assume the ungovernable one of waste, or void.When the eye can no longer exercise its faculty of measurement, instead of properly feeling an EFFECT, it is bewildered and embarrassed by things too great for its embracement. Such is its situation when looking on the ocean, or on any unbounded reach of surface: such is its si

tuation, also, when gazing on the "noble canopy of the sky." It discovers no line of legible termination, and, instead of feeling to be circumscribed by any definite and palpable magnificence, loses the effect of it, in proportion as it loses the traces of dimension.

Similar remarks would apply to excess of bulk in works of art, if they were to be correspondently augmented. The Cathedral of St. Paul is, to every beholder, an object of magnificence; but, suppose that noble edifice advanced to a bulk only twenty times greater than it now is, and it would immediately lose the completion, ascertainable by the eye, together with that individuality, without which the opportunity of visual measurement is denied ; while the effect of magnificence either ceases to be felt, or becomes interrupted, scattered, and perplexed. Such it must ever prove to be, where want of limitation, necessarily associated, by the eye, with want of form, is connected with greatness. Thus, extension will be found to lessen the impression of vastness; as a mighty force may act feebly when it acts without concentration. I think it will moreover prove to be true, that magnifi

cence, though observing those dimensions which the power of vision really comprehends, may yet exceed that measurement wherein the due effect of all magnificence seems to be produced. I would instance clearly what I mean, by remarking, that if two rooms were exhibited to me, one, let me suppose, half a mile in length, proportionably wide and high; the other measuring three hundred feet in length, width and height proportioned likewise: if such a comparative exhibition could be made, the result, I remark, would be, that, by the latter, my eye would at once distinguish the presence, and my mind receive the impression, of greatness; whereas, in the former, magnificence, or the effect of magnificence, would be lost in a dubious expansion, approximating to a positive vacuity; which, instead of communicating to the eye, or to the imagination, a perception of greatness, would leave them to wander, unarrested, in rambling space, and, as it were, gazing and musing, on distance and on vacancy.

A familiar instance, serving to illustrate the correctness of the few remarks which have preceded, may be found, not in the effect, but in the want of effect, in the