The Progress of the Mind

Man's moderate wants are so easily supplied with what he everywhere finds ready to his hand, and he stands at such a distance from the degree of knowledge requisite to covet more. He can neither have foresight nor curiosity. The spectacle of nature, by growing quite familiar to him, becomes at last equally indifferent. It is constantly the same order, constantly the same revolutions. His soul, which nothing disturbs, gives itself up entirely to the consciousness of its actual existence without any thought of even the nearest futurity. Man has not sense enough to feel surprised at the sight of the greatest wonders; it is not in his mind we must look for that philosophy which man must have to know how