and why were the products found upon and beneath the earth's surface, adapted to displace the forest, and to occupy its space with cultivated fields, with spacious and magnificent cities? If there were no such being as man, all these qualities of matter would have been given without use; and without the knowledge of their existence. If man had not been created, what being would have lived to admire and reverence the power, wisdom, and goodness of the Deity? It seems then to follow, from the attributes which we must ascribe to HIM, that such a being as man necessarily belongs to this system. It may be inferred from like principles, that the worlds which we see from our own comparatively humble one, bear some description of intelligent minds, however varied they may be from our own, whose duty and whose employment it may be to know, to acknowledge, and to render homage to the ALMIGHTY SOVEREIGN OF THE UNIVERSE.

69. Reason, by which guide only we are attempting now to find our way, demonstrates, that man belongs to the system which he is made capable of perceiving. If we are convinced of this truth; if we see that all things animate and inanimate other than man, have their proper places of action, and exist therein pursuant to laws which are certain, defined, and which cannot be departed from; are there not laws for man also, in his sphere of action? As we know him to be blessed with understanding, is not that superior gift intended to enable him to search out these laws, and to find his own welfare in rendering his obedience to them?

In the examination of man's nature we shall find new proofs of the wisdom and goodness of the Creator; and clearly discern man's affinity to some superior order of being to any which he knows on earth.

6

CHAPTER XII.

Proofs drawn from Human Organization.

70. Man, as he is presented to the organ of sight, is distinguished from all other animals by his form. He is the only one who is erect, and capable of so sustaining and moving himself. All animals but man have a natural, permament covering on the skin. To all others an artificial covering is an incumbrance; to man it is indispensable; and he only is formed with the hand capable of providing it. Figure, varying color, and eloquent expression, belong only to the human face; though some few animals are supposed, like man, to shed tears in suffering, he only can smile, and laugh. Man can, and no other animal can invent artificial means, and use them; and he only can by such means, lengthen the power of his arm, and make himself felt and feared, by blows and wounds, sent to a far distance.

71. Man alone avails himself of the swiftness, the strength, and productiveness of other animals. Others destroy the living to make them useful, man cherishes the living to make them useful to him. Inventive power, the need of it, physical force and formation necessary to apply it, are not seen in any other living being as in man. He is the only animal who is gifted with ability to make the earth yield its increase, or to fashion natural substances to his own use, by changing or modifying their original forms. There is something of superiority and majesty in the form and natural being of man, which other animals instinctively acknowledge; and every one of the inferior grades shrinks before the searching of his eye. He is distinguished from all other animals in this also, that he is the only animal of the earth, who can pass as well on the ocean as on the land. But the eminent distinction of man over all is, the power of uttering articulate sounds, and of communicating thereby intelligible thought. By this power he makes known his wants, his suffer

ings, his hopes, his fears, his happiness. By this he can instruct, warn, please, command, and terrify; by this, and in one effort, he can move assembled thousands to admire, believe, hate, honor, or pity; to rush on to acts of virtue or of crime; and even to self destruction.

72. Examined as to his interior frame and construction, he is found to be in whole, and every minute part, a necessary component of the material world, and designed to act on it, and to be acted upon by it; and in such variety of modes as could only be conceived by omniscience, and carried into effect by a POWER to which the human mind cannot imagine any limit.

Within the exterior surface of man, some few only of the many proofs of his origin, will be mentioned. His erect form must be so put together as to resist that tendency downwards, which operates on all particles of matter in lines at right angles to the surface of the earth. This invariable law is wonderfully shown in the case of the human frame, comparing the volume of which it is composed, with the base on which it securely rests, and moves. His head, therefore, must be sustained in the straight line of his frame; and yet if it were so sustained, and were immovable in its place, what a difference would it make in human welfare? The head, containing the supposed seat of thought, is provided with an ornamental covering of hair, and an arched covering of bone, capable of defending the brain from all serious injury in the common accidents of life. Heavy as the head is, it is placed so lightly and so firmly on the summit of the spine, and there adapted to move so easily, and effectively, that although it does move, by means of this pivot, and a ball and socket joint, forewards and backwards, and from side to side, millions and millions of times, and even through a long life, no one, in sound health, ever felt a sensation in the act of moving, in the places where this ability to move resides. That which is astonishing is, that through this very pivot of motion, the connexion from the brain is carried

down through the whole extent of the spine or backbone. This marrow, which may not be improperly regarded as a continuation of the brain, sends forth nerves through the openings of the jointed and connected bones, which contain and protect it. We can see in other animals, how the spine may be divided into joints, since they are not erect. Yet, necessary as a straight solid support seems to be from the earth upwards, the human spine has its flexible divisions so as to enable man to throw himself into all the forms which his nature requires. At each part of the human frame where we can comprehend its form and its uses, it seems to us the most excellent, until we proceed to another, which claims the like pre-eminence for its purpose.

73. The connexion of the spine with the hips, and these with the lower limbs, and the feet with these, is more within the reach of observation, and every one may easily inform himself of the utility and fitness of these to their obvious design. The junction of the arms to the main bones of the upper part of the body, and the durable protection, which the heart and lungs have received, show how skilfully man is framed; while below the breast there are no bones, for reasons which every one must perceive, who attends to the positions into which he does, and must throw himself, almost every hour of his life. No one can remain ignorant of the beauty and utility of the human form in the action of the arms and hands, who will give them even the slightest observation; and every one who will notice the form of his own hand, its uses, and its admirable connexion with the wrist, and its facility of motion, must be convinced that such organization could only have sprung from a mind capable of designing and of executing designs. It would enlarge this volume into one on natural history, if minute anatomical descriptions were introduced: we will therefore only further add, as to the human arm and hand, this: let any one look around him and consider the objects within his view, and decide for himself, what the condition of mankind would have

been, if the human arm and hand had not been formed and given to man, as we see them to be. When this inquiry has been entered upon, let him follow it out, and see where it will lead him.

74. The bony frame of the human figure would be a motionless incumbrance if it were not for the muscles which cover it, and which fill up, and give the beauty of shape, which we find in it. These bands, and strings, are so strong, and so curiously placed, and so firmly united with the bones, that they move the whole, or any part of our machine of bones, yet so easily, that the sensation of motion, if felt at all, is always a pleasure in healthy persons, unless overdone, or too long continued. The mechanical operation of the muscles on the bones, we can comprehend; but that which we cannot comprehend, and which is utterly inconceivable is, the connexion between the will and the muscles, and the instantaneous and exact obedience which they render to that sovereign power.

75. That part of the human frame which has the common name of breast, and that of thorax in science, from the Latin thorax (breast), contains the seat of action on which human life directly depends. Here are the lungs, which by the avenue of the wind-pipe, receive about 48000 cubic inches of air every hour in successive respirations. In the lungs the air comes immediately in contact with the blood; and it is computed that the whole mass of blood, which may be 50 pounds, or five gallons, receives, fourteen times within the hour, the life-giving impulse of the air. It is supposed that the whole mass of blood passes through the heart once in every four minutes. From this fact some conception may be formed of the strength of the mechanical action of the heart, which must be sufficient to impel this mass through all the arteries and veins of the system, within that space of time.

76. There, also, is that indescribable power contained in the stomach, (an oblong globular sack of eight or ten inches in length, and five or six in depth, which is capable of contraction and expansion)