em.] There is, then, a
difference between the brutes and man, not only as respects
constitution, but also as respects destiny. Their active force merges
into other mundane forces and disappears, but the special principle
given to him endures. We willingly persuade ourselves that this
principle is actually personified, and that the shades of the dead
resemble their living forms. To Eastern Asia, where philosophy has been
accustomed to the abstract idea of force, the pleasures we derive from
this contemplation are denied, the cheerless doctrine of Buddhism
likening the life of man to the burning of a lamp, and death to its
extinction. Perceiving in the mutation of things, as seen in the narrow
range of human vision, a suggestion of the variations and distribution
of power throughout nature, it rises to a grand, and, it must be added,
an awful conception of the universe.

But Europe, and also the Mohammedan nations of Asia, have not received
with approbation that view. [Sidenote: The human soul.] To them there is
an individualized impersonation of the soul, and an expectation of its
life hereafter. The animal fabric is only an instrument for its use. The
eye is the window through which that mysterious principle perceives:
through the ear are brought to its attention articulate sounds and
harmonies; by the other organs the sensible qualities of bodies are made
known. From the silent chambers and winding labyrinths of the brain the
veiled enchantress looks forth on the outer world, and holds the
subservient body in an irresistible spell.

[Sidenote: Extension of these views to the nature of the world.] This
difference between the Oriental and European ideas respecting the nature
of man reappears in their ideas respecting the nature of the world. The
one sees in it only a gigantic engine, in which stars and orbs are
diffusing power and running through predestined mutations. The other,
with better philosophy and a higher science, asserts a personal God, who
considers and orders events in a vast panorama before him.

CHAPTER XI.

THE EUROPEAN AGE OF REASON--(_Continued_).

THE UNION OF SCIENCE AND INDUSTRY.

_European Progress in the Acquisition of exact Knowledge.--Its
Resemblance to that of Greece._

_Discoveries respecting the Air.--Its mechanical and chemical
Properties.--Its Relation to Animals and Plants.--The Winds.
--Meteorology.--Sounds.--Acoustic Phenomena._

_Discoveries respecting the Ocean.--Physica