light. The gradual opening and improvement of this sense, and that of hearing, their connexion with the higher faculties of the mind; sense of beauty and order and harmony annexed to them. From the latter, our delight, in eloquence, poetry, and music derived. -Office of the taste and smell.-Internal sense of reflection, whereby the mind views its own powers and operations, compared to a young wood-nymph admiring herself in some fountain.-Admission of ideas, some by a single sense, some by two, others by every way of sensation and reflection. Instance in a person born blind, he has no ideas of light and colours; but he has those of figure, motion, extension, and space, (objects both of the sight and touch.) Third sort, those which make their entrance into the mind by every channel alike; as pleasure, and pain, power, existence, unity, and succession. Properties of bodies, whereby they make themselves known to us. Primary qualities: magnitude, solidity, mobility, texture, and figure. * * * DE PRINCIPIIS COGITANDI. LIBER PRIMUS. AD FAVONIUM. A UNDE Animus scire incipiat: quibus inchoet orsa 5 Signare incerta, tremulâque insistere plantâ * a Plan of the Poem. b Invocation to Mr. Locke. * It has been already observed in the note on Letter XVII. p. 38, that Mr. Gray's hexameters, besides having the variety of Virgil's pauses, closed also with his elisions. For Virgil, as an attentive reader will immediately perceive, generally introduces one elision, and not unfrequently more, in those lines which terminate the sense. This gives to the versification its last and most exquisite grace, and leaves the ear fully satisfied. Mr. Gray could not fail to observe, and of course to aim at this happy effect of elisions in a concluding line: of which the present poem, in particular, affords indubitable and abundant proofs. Quin potius duc ipse (potes namque omnia) sanctum 10 15 20 25 30 Undas quisque suas volvens, cursuque sonoro In mare prorumpunt: hos magno acclinis in antro c Use and extent of the subject. e Office of the nervous system. d Union of the soul and body. f Sensation, the origin of our ideas. Undique Lætitia florent mortalia corda, 95 100 105 Sive lucernarum rutilus colluxerit ardor, & The touch, our first and most extensive sense. h Sight, our second sense. i Digression on light. * Sight, imperfect at first, gradually improves. Extemplo hùc obverti aciem, quæ fixa repertos n At medias fauces, et lingeæ humentia templa Gustus habet, quà se insinuet jucunda saporum Luxuries, dona Autumni, Bacchique voluptas. • Naribus interea consedit odora hominum vis, Docta leves captare auras, Panchaïa quales: Vere novo exhalat, Floræve quod oscula fragrant Roscida, cum Zephyri furtim sub vesperis horâ Respondet votis, mollemque aspirat amorem. 110 115 120 125 130 Ideas of beauty, proportion, and order. Hearing also improvable by the judgment. n Taste. P Reflection, the other source of our ideas. • Smell. 4 Nec verò simplex ratio, aut jus omnibus unum 155 160 185 Ulla nec orarum circumcæsura coërcet. Inde potestatum enasci densissima proles ; 9 Ideas approach the soul, some by single avenues, some by two, others by every sense. r Illustration.-Light, an example of the first. • Figure, motion, extension, of the second. t Pleasure, pain, of the third. ■ Also, power, existence, unity, succession, duration. ✓ Primary qualities of bodies. w Magnitude, solidity, mobility, texture, figure. 190 195 |