10 THE REASON WIIT 



Happy the man who sees a God employed 



Iu all the good and ill that chequer lite ! &quot; COWPER. 



statement of a fact in anatomy, and the philosopher who observes and interprets 

 nature, is not surely to blame. 



Man, then, whether considered as the head of the animal creation, and a part of it ; 

 or as a sole genus and sole species, distinct from others, and lord of all ; whethei 

 defined to be a biped without feathers, or a quadruped without hoofs, a monkey with 

 a voice, or a monkey without a tail, if viewed solely in a physical light, and setting 

 aside his divine reason, and his immortal nature, is a being provided with two 

 hands, designed for prehension, and having fingers protected by flat nails, and two 

 feet, with single soles, destined for walking ; with a single stomach, and with three 

 kinds of teeth, incisive, canine, and molar. 



His position is upright, his food both vegetable and animal, his body naked. It 

 has been made a subject of dispute, whether there is more than one species in tho 

 human race ; but it is merely a dispute of words ; and if the term species is used 

 in its common scientific sense, it cannot be denied that there is but one species 

 There are, however, certain and constant differences of stature, physiognomy, color* 

 nature of the hair or form of the skull, which have given rise to subdivisions of thia 

 species. 



CHAPTER II. 



THE STRUCTURE OF THE HUMAN FRAME THE BONES, MUSCLES, 

 TENDONS, LIGAMENTS, NERVES, ETC. 



14. Why is the position of the human face exactly adapted to the 

 erect attitude ? . 



Because in that posture the plane of the orbits is nearly horizontal ; 

 the cavities of the nose are in the best direction for inhalino- odours 



O 



proceeding from before or from below them ; the jaws do not project 

 in front of the forehead and chin. If the posture were changed, as 

 painful an effort would be required to examine an object in front 

 of the body as is now necessary to keep the eyes fixed on the zenith, 

 and the heavens would be almost hidden from our view ; the nose 

 would be unable to perceive any other odours than those which pro 

 ceeded from the earth or from the body itself ; and the teeth and 

 li^s would be almost useless, for they would scarcely touch an ob 

 ject or. tho ground before the forehead and cliia were in contact 



