mselves about
the _means_ of procuring future bliss, or of avoiding future
misery.

Whilst the acquiring of languages, the making of tools, and
the labouring for money, which are all only the _means_ of
procuring pleasure; and the praying to the Deity, as another
means to procure happiness, are characteristic of human
nature.]

"Unenvied eminence, in Nature's plan
Rise the reflective faculties of Man!
Labour to Rest the thinking Few prefer!
Know but to mourn! and reason but to err!--
In Eden's groves, the cradle of the world,
Bloom'd a fair tree with mystic flowers unfurl'd; 450
On bending branches, as aloft it sprung,
Forbid to taste, the fruit of KNOWLEDGE hung;
Flow'd with sweet Innocence the tranquil hours,
And Love and Beauty warm'd the blissful bowers.
Till our deluded Parents pluck'd, erelong,
The tempting fruit, and gather'd Right and Wrong;
Whence Good and Evil, as in trains they pass,
Reflection imaged on her polish'd glass;
And Conscience felt, for blood by Hunger spilt,
The pains of shame, of sympathy, and guilt! 460

[Footnote: _And gather'd Right and Wrong_, l. 456. Some
philosophers have believed that the acquisition of knowledge
diminishes the happiness of the possessor; an opinion which
seems to have been inculcated by the history of our first
parents, who are said to have become miserable from eating of
the tree of knowledge. But as the foresight and the power of
mankind are much increased by their voluntary exertions in
the acquirement of knowledge, they may undoubtedly avoid many
sources of evil, and procure many sources of good; and yet
possess the pleasures of sense, or of imagination, as
extensively as the brute or the savage.]

VIII. "LAST, as observant Imitation stands,
Turns her quick glance, and brandishes her hands,
With mimic acts associate thoughts excites,
And storms the soul with sorrows or delights;
Life's shadowy scenes are brighten'd and refin'd,
And soft emotions mark the feeling mind.

[Footnote: _And soft emotions_, l. 466. From our aptitude to
imitation arises what is generally understood by the word
sympathy, so well explained by Dr. Smith of Glasgow. Thus the
appearance of a cheerful counten