o futurity. It is capable of
penetrating into the causes of events, and discovering the connexion
that exists between them.

Governed by invariable laws, which connect him with all the beings,
whether animate or inanimate, among which he exists, man has certain
relations of convenience, and inconvenience, arising from the
particular constitution of the surrounding objects, as well as of his
own body. These external objects possess qualities which may be
useful or prejudicial to him; and his interest requires, that he
should be capable of ascertaining and appreciating these properties.

It is by sensation, or feeling, that the knowledge of external
objects is obtained. The faculty of feeling, modified in every organ,
perceives those qualities for which the peculiar structure of the
organ is fitted; and all the various sensations of sound, colour,
taste, smell, resistance, and temperature, find appropriate organs by
which they are perceived, without mixing with, or confounding each
other. External objects, therefore, act upon the parts of the body
endowed with feeling, and their action is diversified in such a
manner, as to give us a great number of sensations, which appear to
have no resemblance to each other, and which make us acquainted with
the various properties of surrounding objects.

It would not, however, have been sufficient for man, merely to have
possessed this power of perceiving the different properties of the
objects which surround him: it was necessary likewise, that he should
be possessed of motion, that he might be able to approach or avoid
them, to seize or repulse them, as it suited his convenience or
advantage. By the extreme mobility of his limbs, he is able to move
his body, and transport it from place to place; to bring external
objects nearer to him, to remove them to a greater distance, and to
place them in such situations and such circumstances, as may enable
them to act on each other, and produce the changes which he wishes.

The human body, therefore, may be regarded as a machine composed
(besides the moving parts which have formerly been noticed) of divers
organs upon which external objects act, and produce those impressions
which convince us of their presence, and make us acquainted with
their properties. These impressions are transmitted to the sentient
principle, or mind; and the faculty we possess of perceiving these
impressions has been called by physiologists, sensibility.

Sensat