instant to instant; he went and returned with the most agitated air, and the utmost inquietude; at intervals he uttered the most plaintive cries; at other times, with his eyes fixed upon the female, he preserved the most sorrowful silence. It was impofsible to be in a mistake concerning these exprefsions of his grief; I had almost said, of his despair. The most insensible heart would have been moved by it. His faithful companion at last expired; he himself languished from that time forward, and survived her only a few months.

MISCELLANEOUS LITERATURE.

Thoughts on the circumstances which constitute the essence of grandeur and sublimity in artificial struc

tures.

THE legitimate province of the rational faculty with which man is endowed, I conceive to be nothing else than to investigate facts that fall under his cognisance, to compare them together, to mark their influences respectively, and to draw the conclusions that these will authorise.

The errors into which we are so liable to be betrayed in the exercise of this faculty originate chiefly in the carelessnefs with which the facts whereupon it is to be exercised are investigated, the difficulty of ascertaining them with the necessary precision, and the danger of our falling into mistakes concerning them.

they were born: but, at the end of that term, which was seemingly a long while for that kind of paroquet, the female fell into a state of languor, which had all the appearance of old age; her legs swelled, and there appeared upon them knots, as if the disease were of the nature of the gout. It was no longer possible for her to go to take her food as formerly; but the male, ever attentive and alert in whatever concerned her, went and brought it to her, carrying it in his bill, and emptying it into hers. He was thus her vigilant purveyor during the space of four months entire. The infirmities of his dear companion, however, increased every day; at length she was no longer able to sit upon the perch; she remained crouched at the bottom of the cage, and from time to time made a few useless efforts to regain the lower perch. The male, who remained perched close by her, seconded these her feeble efforts with all his power. Sometimes he seized with his bill the upper part of her wing, to try to draw her to him; sometimes he took her by the bill and tried to raise her up, reiterating his efforts for that purpose many times. His movements, his gestures, his countenance, his continual solicitude; every thing, in short, indicated in this interesting bird the ardent desire to aid the weakness of his companion, and to alleviate her sufferings. But the spectacle became still more interesting when the female was upon the point of expiring. Never was there seen among birds a more moving scene. The unfortunate male went round and round the expiring female without ceasing; he redoubled his afsiduities and tender cares; he tried to open her bill, with a view to give

instant to instant; he went and returned with the most agitated air, and the utmost inquietude; at intervals he uttered the most plaintive cries; at other times, with his eyes fixed upon the female, he preserved the most sorrowful silence. It was impofsible to be in a mistake concerning these exprefsions of his grief; I had almost said, of his despair. The most insensible heart would have been moved by it. His faithful companion at last expired; he himself languished from that time forward, and survived her only a few months.

MISCELLANEOUS LITERATURE.

Thoughts on the circumstances which constitute the essence of grandeur and sublimity in artificial struc

tures.

THE legitimate province of the rational faculty with which man is endowed, I conceive to be nothing else than to investigate facts that fall under his cognisance, to compare them together, to mark their influences respectively, and to draw the conclusions that these will authorise.

The errors into which we are so liable to be betrayed in the exercise of this faculty originate chiefly in the carelefsnefs with which the facts whereupon it is to be exercised are investigated, the difficulty of ascertaining them with the necessary precision, and the danger of our falling into mistakes concerning them.

The man who is the most careful in examining his facts, and the most accurate in authenticating them, will in general form the most correct conclusions; and him we call judicious. He who is the quickest in comparing and combining those which present themselves to him, and the most rapid in deducing conclusions, is said to have talents. These two faculties are by no means necefsarily conjoined; and thus it happens, that men of talents are not always men of solid understanding.

The mind obtains its perception of physical objects through the intervention of the corporeal organs of sense. The qualities of these objects are susceptible of being ascertained by means of experiments properly contrived; and when they are thus ascertained, they can be described with such accuracy as to convey the same ideas to any number of persons who have taken the pains to make themselves acquainted, by a careful examination, with the circumstances that can affect the nature of the objects in question. Hence, a patience of research, and a mind capable of an intense application, are qualities that must necefsarily insure a progrefs in this line; and every day that a man thus qualified lives, must tend to augment his knowledge.

In regard to objects of taste, circumstances are very different. Instead of facts that may be examined, sifted, and analysed by palpable experiments, and which thousands can judge of with the same degree of precision as any one among them; the man of taste has only mental perceptions, the mere instinctive feelings of the mind, which are to serve as the basis

to which it is pofsible for him to resort for every illustration on this subject: but, as the instinctive feelings of one person are affected very differently by the influence of a certain object, from what those are in another, it follows, that the facts which are palpable and undeniably certain to one person, may not be at all perceptible to another; and of course can never have their certainty proved to his satisfaction. Hence the origin of those endless and unsatisfactory arguments respecting objects of taste which every day occur in society. There are other sources of misapprehension; but it is unnecefsary to our present purpose to take notice of them.

The use I wish to make of the above illustration is, to recommend to every person, in all disquisitions respecting objects of taste, to fix their attention, in the first place, on the facts that are to serve as the basis of the reasoning; that is to say, on the perceptions or feelings of the person who is endeavouring to communicate his ideas, or, in other words, the imprefsions that the primary objects make upon his mind; and if you can thus observe that these impressions have been of a nature very different from what the same objects have made upon your mind, there will be little hope that you can ever come to understand each other: but if you yourself feel a strong instinctive impression from the object, whether of approbation or the reverse, while the other praises or condemns it simply in consequence of cool reasoning merely founded on abstract principles, then instantly withdraw from all kind of discussion; for, in that case, it is as impofsible that you can ever come to have the same ideas with him VOL. III.