334 THE HUMAN FORM. 



systems of the disputants, but not of the industrious world. The 

 consequence was, that power was beyond experience, and disap- 

 peared out of philosophy ; though to avoid the shame of avowal, 

 its name was kept for a cloak. Power, however, becomes again an 

 object of study when it enters its own proper form. Let us run 

 along the arm, from shoulder to fingers, to notice how the emblem 

 offers a true habitation to the idea. First, man is a living force, a 

 lake of energy, from which the arm pushes forth as a river of 

 waters of works ; for force is the trunk and body which urges at 

 the back of power. Next, the shoulder is proper power, the place 

 where will meets force, and where power is born. Again, the arm 

 is strength, where the biceps and triceps which are the blacksmiths 

 of action live ; the men of iron know where their iron lies. The 

 forearm is toughness, or the home of sinewy power. The wrist is 

 flexibility, where sleight of hand begins. The palm of the hand 

 is possession, or the power of having; it itches for the finger tips, 

 which give it the power of holding. The grave thumb is firmness 

 or steadiness, and it stands short and sullen among the fingers, 

 which are of the rapid temperament of skill. In the closed fist again 

 the emblem of force comes forth, and completes the circle of this 

 series of powers. This, for the one-sided view : there are however 

 two arms ; the left for all passive powers ; the right for the active ; 

 and the two are married and sometimes clasped, when the most 

 important works are to issue. It is fortunate that the thought of 

 power inhabits such an engine as its proper loord, for as we said 

 before, a wealth of suggestion arises out of the natural language of 

 things, such as could not proceed from artificial symbols ; for the 

 etymology of this language is the whole nature and anatomy of the 

 arm as the exponent of the idea which dwells in it : hence it intro- 

 duces us into an infinite field in the study of power. But if we 

 study it in words or conceptions first, we get no more than the 

 word or conception involves, and we leave the nature of the case 

 out. It must surely be evident that a child working as well as he 

 can with divine forms, in which his mind too is native, is better 

 circumstanced for truth, than a sage fumbling ever so cleverly with 

 notions of his own, into which no creation, but his own laborious 

 conceit has induced him. Experience itself declares, that a thou- 



