ertion, is requisite for safety. Pain, whilst it is a necessary contrast to its opposite pleasure, is the great safeguard of the frame. Finally, as to man, we shall be led to infer that the pains and pleasures of mere bodily sense (with yet more benevolent intention) carry us onward, through the developement and improvement of the mind itself, to higher aspirations.

Such is the course of reasoning which I propose to follow in giving an account of the hand and arm, contrasting them with the corresponding parts of living creatures, through all the divisions of the chain of vertebrated animals.

When I first thought of extending my notes on this subject, it appeared to me that I might have many other topics more prolific in proofs of design, and more interesting; but I now find that there is no end to illustration, and that the subject branches out interminably.

Some may conceive that as I have for my title the Human Hand, and the relation of the solid structures of the animal frame, it will lead me to consider the body as a machine only. I neither see the necessity for this, nor do I acknowledge the danger of considering it in that light. I embark fearlessly in the investigation, convinced that, yielding to the current of thought, and giving the fullest scope to enquiry, there can be no hidden danger if the mind be free from vicious bias. I cannot see how scepticism should arise

out of the contemplation of the structure and mechanism of the animal body.

Let us for a moment think what is the natural result of examining the human body as a piece of machinery, and let us see whether it makes the creation of man more or less important in his relation to the whole scheme of nature.

Suppose that there is placed before us a machine for raising great weights, be it the simplest of all, the wheel and axle. We are given to understand that this piece of mechanism has the property of multiplying the power of the hand. But a youth of subtile mind may say, I do not believe that it is possible so to multiply the power of the hand; and if the mechanician be a philosopher, he will rather applaud the spirit of doubt. If he condescend to explain, he will say, that the piles driven into the ground, or the screws which unite the machinery to the beams, are the fixed points which resist in the working of the machine; that their resistance is a necessary condition, since it is thrown, together with the power of the hand, on the weight to be raised. And he will add that the multiplication of wheels does not alter the principle of action, which every one may see in the simple lever, to result from the resistance of the fulcrum or point, on which it rests.

Now grant that man's body is a machine, where are the points of resistance? are they not in the ground he stands upon? This leads us to enquire

by what property we stand. Is it by the weight of the body, or, in other words, is it by the attraction of the earth? The terms attraction, or gravitation lead at once to the philosophy of the question. We stand because the body has weight, and a resistance, in proportion to the matter of the animal frame, and the magnitude of the globe itself. We wait not at present to observe the adjustment of the strength of the frame, the resistance of the bones, the elasticity of the joints, and the power of the muscles to the weight of the whole. Our attention is directed to the relations which the frame has to the earth we are placed upon.

Some philosophers, who have considered the matter curiously, have said, that if man were translated bodily to another planet, and were it smaller than the earth, he would be too light, and he would walk like one wading in deep water. If the planet were larger, the attraction of his body would make him feel as if his limbs were loaded with lead; nay, the attraction might be so great as to destroy the fabric of the body, crushing bones and all.*

However idle these fancies may be, there is no doubt that the animal frame is formed with a due relation to the earth we inhabit, and that the

* The matter of Jupiter is as 330,600 to 1000 of our Earth. The diameter of Pallas is 80 miles; the Earth is 7,911 miles in diameter.

parts of the animal body, and we may say the strength of the materials, have as certainly a correspondence with the weight, as the wheels and levers of a machine, or the scaffolding which sustains them, have relation to the force and velocity of the machinery, or the load that they are employed to raise.

The mechanism and organization of animals have been often brought forward for a different purpose from that for which I use them. We find it said, that it is incomprehensible that an all powerful Being should manifest his will in this manner; that mechanical contrivance implies difficulties overcome: and how strange it is, they add, that the perceptions of the mind, which might have been produced by some direct means, or have arisen spontaneously, are received through an instrument so fine and complex as the eye;and which requires the creation of the element of light, to enter the organ and to cause vision,

For my own part, I think it most natural to contemplate the subject quite differently. We perhaps presume too much, when we say, that light has been created for the purpose of vision, We are hardly entitled to pass over its properties as a chemical agent, its influence on the gases, and, in all probability on the atmosphere, its importance to vegetation, to the formation of the aromatic and volatile principles, and to fructification, its influence on the animal surface by

invigorating the circulation, and imparting health. In relation to our present subject, it seems more rational to consider light as second only to attraction, in respect to its importance in nature, and as a link connecting systems of infinite remoteness.

To have a conception of this we must tutor our minds, and acquire some measure of the velocity of light, and of the space which it fills. It is not sufficient to say that it moves 200,000 miles in a second; for we can comprehend no such degree of velocity. If we are further informed that the earth is distant from the sun 95,000,000 of miles, and that light traverses the space in 8 minutes and 1-8th, it is but another way of affirming the inconceivable rapidity of its transmission. Astronomers, the power of whose minds affords us the very highest estimate of human faculties, the accuracy of whose calculations is hourly visible to us, have affirmed that light emanates from celestial bodies at such vast distance, that thousands of years shall elapse during its progress to our earth: yet matter impelled by a force equal to its transmission through this space, shall enter the eye, and strike upon the delicate nerve with no other effect than to produce vision.

Instead of saying that light is created for the eye, and to give us the sense of vision, is it not more conformable to a just manner of considering these things that our wonder and our