426 CORPOREAL CHARACTERISTICS OF MAN. 



and noble.* Among the beings beheld by Satan in Milton's 

 Paradise, 



" Two of far nobler shape, erect and tall, 



Godlike erect, with native honour clad, 



In naked majesty seemed lords of all." -f 



The erect posture is natural and peculiar to man . J All nations 

 walk erect, and, among those individuals who have been dis- 

 covered in a wild and solitary state, there is no well authenticated 

 instance of one whose progression was on all-fours. If we 

 attempt this mode of progression, we move either on the knees 

 or the points of the toes, throwing the legs oblicoiely back to a 

 considerable distance ; we find ourselves insecure and uneasy ; 

 our eyes instead of looking forwards are directed to the ground j 



* Consult Blumenbach, De Generis Humani Varietate Nativa. Sect. i. 

 De hominis a cseteris animalibus differentia. 



f Paradise Lost. Book iv. 288. 



J There is little necessity hi the present day to attempt the refutation of the 

 ridiculous opinion that man is destined to walk on all-fours. But I do so for 

 the purpose of displaying many peculiarities of our structure. 



It is almost incredible that a thinking man could have entertained it for a 

 moment, any more than the idea of our naturally having tails. Yet this is the 

 fact; and, in exquisite ridicule of such philosophers^ Butler makes Hudibras, 

 after proving to his mistress by his beard that he is no gelding, fruitlessly urge 

 his erect posture in proof that he is not a horse. 



" Next it appears I am no horse, 

 That I can argue and discourse, 

 Have but two legs, and ne'er a tail 

 Quoth she, That nothing will avail ; 

 For some philosophers of late here 

 Write, men have four legs by nature, 

 And that 'tis custom makes them go, 

 Erroneously upon but two. 

 As 'twas in Germany made a good 

 B" a boy that lost himself in a wood, 

 And growing t' a man was wont 

 With wolves upon all-four to hunt." 



Hudibras, Part ii. Canto i. 



