creation of man. Certain analogies exist also in the structure of the brain between some of the Simiæ and man. Professor Owen, indeed, has demonstrated that these resemblances have been greatly over-rated; and that, while in man the facial angle is, in the average of Europeans, 80°, in the adult chimpanzee, which in this respect approaches the nearest to man, the facial angle is only 35°, and in the orang or satyr 30°. The ape compared with man," says Professor Kidd, "may indeed be among other animals proximus huic; still, however, it must be added 'longo sed proximus intervallo." In other words, the physical continuity of which we speak is found to consist with essential difference and with a permanency of specific form. The identity of the species is unchangeable. Even the higher phenomena of the human mind are not without their suggestive pre-intimations in the animal world. The impelled volitions of the brute will, is a faint foreshadowing of man's free will, and an apt picture of the constrained condition to which it may be reduced. And even the conscience may be regarded as having an inadequate precursor in the resentful rage of the animal when suffering from the hand of man, though of the moral quality of justice it knows nothing. Mere external resemblances of this nature abound; nor can there be any danger in allowing the imagination to indulge itself in tracing them, provided the mind does not lose sight of the still greater differences.

6. The serial character of the Adamic creation, then; the chronological relation in which man stands to the great process; the order of his appearance in respect to the particular classes of animal life to which he belongs; and his relation to preexisting types of physical structure, all show that he is an integral part of the great system into which he has come. He was meant, for a time at least, to be at home in it. To disturb it, would be to derange his own nature. If he would understand it, he must study it. If he would command it, he must obey its laws. Such is the harmony between it and him, that in proportion as he develops its resources, he promotes his own self-development. And while his intellectual distinction, as compared with animated nature, consists in his perception of this fact, and in his consciously acting on it, his moral prerogative lies in the power which he possesses of viewing the creation as the symbolical utterance of the Creator's perfections, and of voluntarily making it the occasion of a homage which places him in communion with the Uncreated.

CHAPTER V.

DEVELOPMENT.

1. We have seen that man takes up into his constitution the distinctive characteristics of the higher classes of animals. The law of development leads us to expect "that the same characteristics and properties which existed in the preceding and inferior stage of creation will be found to be not only brought on to the present, but to be in a more advanced condition, in the sense of being expressed in higher forms, or applied to higher purposes, (if it be not entirely superseded by something superior;) or that it will be in the power of the subsequent and superior production so to render or to apply it." For as, by the great law of the Divine manifestation, everything is in alliance and dependence; and as everything looks on to an end beyond itself, its nature, or its relations and results, may be expected to advance, the further it proceeds from its original starting-point towards the distant end for the sake of which it exists.* The development of which we speak, it will be remarked, is not of one thing from another, but of the Divine plan of creation, and of our conceptions of that plan.

It has been shown already (in the preceding chapter) that man is, geologically speaking, of recent origin. Chronologically, the inspired records anticipated this conclusion, by describing man as the crowning production of the Adamic creation. And regarded zoologically, as ranking among the mammalia, it is found that the series of structures modelled on this particular type, after exhibiting the gradual development of its characteristic elements, attains a point of perfection in man which places him at the summit of the scale of terrestrial beings.

2. Physiologists point out numerous particulars in which man specifically differs from, and surpasses the physical structure and physiological constitution of such animals as make the nearest approximation to him. The most obvious of these distinctions is his erect posture. "Man presents the only instance among the mammalia of a conformation by which the erect posture can be permanently maintained, and in which the office of support

*The Pre-Adamite Earth, p. 52.

+-Blumenbach's De generis Humani Varietate Nativa, § 1.

ing the trunk of the body is consigned exclusively to the lower extremities." Even M. Lesson, while affirming that the Simiæ, in general organization, are nearer to man than to the brutes, lays it down as a perfectly ascertained fact, that it is only by accident, or external help, or painful training, that the orangs tread for a few moments on their posterior limbs alone, or insecurely keep themselves in an upright position. In man, however, the length of the heel-bone, the form of the foot, the broad, articular surfaces of the knee-joint, the muscular swelling of the calves, the length of the leg, the width and direction of the pelvis, the manner in which the head is placed on the spinal column, and the adjustments of the organs of sense, all combine to mark the intention of the Divine Creator that man should maintain an upright attitude.* How many excellences,' exclaims Cicero, 'God has bestowed upon mankind! He has raised them from the ground and made them lofty and erect.'† The os homini sublime, of Ovid, celebrates the same organic distinction. The primary and most striking advantage of this arrangement is, that the anterior limbs, the arms and hands, by being exempted from the service to which other animals apply them, are left at liberty to be employed by man as instruments of prehension and touch.

3. This brings us to remark on that structure of unrivalled excellence, the human hand; for were it not differently constituted from the anterior limb of other animals, in vain would be its exemption from the office of supporting the body. The limb which comes nearest to the human hand is the paw of the adult chimpanzee. But its distinguishing peculiarity is the smallness of the thumb, (so insignificant as to have been termed by Eustachius "omnino ridiculus") which "extends no further than to the root of the fingers. Now, it is upon the length, strength, free lateral motion, and perfect mobility of the thumb, that the power of the human hand depends. The thumb is called pollex, because of its strength; and that strength is necessary to the power of the hand, being equal to that of all the fingers. Without the fleshy ball of the thumb, the power of the fingers would avail nothing; and accordingly, the large ball, formed by the muscles of the thumb, is the distinguishing character of the human hand, and especially of that of an expert workman." Doubtless, the

* Dr. Elliotson's Human Physiology, c. 1. p. 9; Dr. Prichard's Researches, etc. Vol. I. p. 171, etc.

† Cicero's Nat. Deor. lib. ii. p. 173.

Sir C. Bell's Treatise on the Hand, p. 121.

of

variously formed and armed extremities of other animals give them great advantages. "But to man," says Galen, "the Creator has given, in lieu of every other natural weapon or organ defence, that instrument, the hand; an instrument applicable to every art and occasion, as well of peace as of war. Rightly has Aristotle defined the hand to be the instrument antecedent to, or productive of, all other instruments."*

Were we aiming to establish the right of man, then, to occupy the summit of the zoological pyramid, whether we compared his physical claims with the claims of any other single species, or with the selected and aggregate perfections of the whole animal creation, we could be content to rely on the mechanism and endowments of the hand alone. Such is its perfection, in these respects, that some philosophers, like Anaxagoras in ancient, and Helvetius in modern times, have ascribed man's superiority to his hand alone. True, his advancement is owing ultimately to his intellectual power. Yet with hoofs instead of hands, he would be physically unable to construct the simplest instruments. It is his hand which executes the plans which his mind conceives; though it does no more. It is the human hand which multiplies its own power by adding to it the wheel, the axle, and all the mechanical powers; which appropriates the strength of one animal, and the swiftness of another; which, by the construction of suitable instruments, increases indefinitely our powers of hearing and of sight; and gives us that complete dominion we possess over the various forms of matter. Man, then, is superior in organization to all other animals; for his hand is not an isolated part, or a thing appended; every part of his frame conforms to it, and acts with reference to it. Yet the bones whose distribution we so much admire in the human arm and hand, we recognize in the fin of the whale, in the paddle of the turtle, in the wing of the bird, and in the paw of the lion or the bear. But concerning men it was the pleasure of the Creator to say, "Let them have dominion over all these:" and He devised and created the human hand as the instrument of acquiring that dominion.

4. Ascending from the mechanism of man's structure to the functions of his organic life, we find that he is distinguished by that kind of superiority which his social and moral relations might have led us to expect. The form and arrangement of

* Quoted in Prof. Kidd's Bridgewater Treatise on the Physical Condition of Man, p. 33.

his teeth, as well as the structure of his digestive organs, show that he is omnivorous, or capable of subsisting alike on vegetable and animal food, while his means of culinary preparation, and his natural and artificial means of adapting himself to the temperature, better qualify him for every variety of soil and climate than any other animal. Hence he is found alike in the arctic circle, and under the equator, and supporting the widely different degrees of atmospheric pressure in valleys, and on lofty table lands, ten thousand feet high. And it is singular that the animals which make the nearest approach to him in structure should be among those which, in this respect of geographical distribution, differ most widely from him - such as the chimpanzee and ourang-outang. Now, as we found animal existence. superior to vegetable, partly because it is rendered independent of local situation for food, and enjoys the liberty of moving from place to place, the superiority of human existence to mere animal life, in this respect, is proportionate to the wider sphere in which he is free to range. Yet who but the Maker of man could have known that his nutritive system was thus generalized, as the fact is implied in the primitive appointment, "Behold I have given you every herb bearing seed which is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree on which is fruit bearing seed; to you it shall be for food." And the system of nutrition thus generalized is, remarks Roget, one vast laboratory, where mechanism is subservient to chemistry, where chemistry is the agent of the higher powers of vitality, and where these powers themselves minister to the more exalted faculties of sen

sation and intellect.

5. Still more marked is the superiority of man if we ascend to the department of his animal life. Here, that relation of the sexes which is a law of the whole animated kingdom, is the means of producing intellectual improvement and moral excellence. For this we are prepared by the inspired historian of Eden. "And Jehovah God caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man, and he slept: and he took out one of his ribs, and closed up the flesh in its place. And Jehovah God formed [built up] the rib which he had taken from the man into a woman, and he brought her to the man. And the man said, this now is it*-bone out of my bones, and flesh out of my flesh; this shall be called woman, for out of man was this

*Meaning-"now at length I see a being like myself, one of my own species," referring to ver. 20.