129 PROCEEDINGS OP PROVINCIAL SOCIETIES. 



feet animals created for the benefit and subservience of man — cxamininjr the 

 structure of animals, and shewing, by a striking correspondence, however 

 modified to the aptitudes of the creature, that the structure of every living 

 thing exhibited but one character, and in the myriads of changes which oc- 

 curred we beheld but the charms of ceaseless variety, so necessary to the 

 happiness of man, while the original type was never destroyed, but displayed 

 through endless variations, a faint shadow of the unity of that " Poiver" which 

 created the sentient principle itself, and by the order of an unerring neces- 

 sity, perpetuated change without decay. 



" Thus " all thiriffs^^ are arranged according to the will of a Deity, as immu- 

 table as he is ineifably pure ; and man, by the universal laiv, that Nature 

 cannot be at variance with herself, is saved from those inconceivable evils 

 of chance which nothing less than a divine vigilance could foresee and escape 

 from. To judge of the physical nature of man, we compared his structure 

 with that of the Simla Satyrus, and we perceived the most humiliating re- 

 semblance; that the Ape offered but few distinctions, and comparing the 

 Orang with the Hottentot, we might be inclined to suspect that the pre-emi- 

 nence of man was only in degree, and might wonder why the Simire had 

 made no further advancement than the solitary instances of individuals who, 

 though they acquired an extraordinary intelligence, 3*et, like other animals, 

 never imparted to their progeny more than the natural instinct of the spe- 

 cies. Suppose we cauld succeed in pairing a male and female Orang, teach- 

 ing and improving the successive oifspring, it may be a query how far their 

 structure would be improved, and their reasoning faculty be developed. Of 

 course, this is a mere hypothesis ; but when we can hardly distinguish be- 

 tween some human and brute creatures, and at the same time know that the 

 human is subject to improvement, even to the highest degree, in a long period 

 of time losing almost all the original character, we might not unphilosophically 

 argue upon the possibility of improving the brute, though perhaps not to so 

 high a condition as man. We have examined into the most suitable food for 

 man, whether vegetable or animal — we have pursued the subject to the 

 habits, form, colour, and moral condition, of the different nations on this 

 globe — we have examined the size and form of the cranium with the corres- 

 ponding size of the brain — and we have again to remark the analogy between 

 the facial angle of the Ape, and that of the black races ; and, lastly, have 

 examined the subject of animal instinct, and how far the brute can claim 

 the distinction of reasoning man. 



" With all the uncertainty of the inquiry, of one thing we are convinced ; 

 that, however impossible it is for the animal to break down the line of de- 

 markation which separates man from the living world of moving beings, man 

 can be degraded to that line ; and if the Deity has bestowed upon him a fa- 

 culty which unites him with the angels, it may be so remote as to be like the 

 lowest grade of animal life, which is scarcely distinguishable as such. The cha- 

 racter is preserved, but so faint and indistinct that the brute, rather than 

 man, seems the bond of alliance. 'Tis man educated who is the image of 

 God ; for the resemblance cannot be in the mere flesh : the beauty of the 

 statue is the life and expression which struggle through it, and breathe 

 around every feature. It is the mind which gives eloquence to the eye and 

 loveliness to the face, otherwise cold and spiritless, — it is the mind which 

 animates our baser nature, and gives to the creature the image of the Crea- 

 tor. Take this mind away, as we have before said, — place an infant in the 

 inauspicious circumstances of a prisoner immured within the cold damp cells 

 of the prison-house,— throw around him the veil of darkness, without a ray 

 of loveliness and light, ^-teach him not by words or things, by nature or by 

 art, — where would be the innate ideas ? — where would be the proud symbols, 

 divine or human ? — where would be the ascendency of man ? Whatever the 

 soul be — and I hope we are too wise to attempt to define its nature — whe- 

 ther the aggregate of all our ideas — a spiritual recipient for the images of the 

 senses — a supreme independent unalloyed power — or a material emanation — 

 whatever it be, an uneducated man is to us a soulless, useless, dependent 



