368 J A M A I C A. 



of penetrating liquors. The incifory teeth fill the fore-part ; they 

 are thin at tlie edge, like a wedge, and fliarp as knives. The can'ins 

 are rounded, longer than the reft, and ending in a point. . All the 

 reft have a fquare furface, that grows wider and wider, the further 

 they are fet within the mouth ; thefe are the molares, or grinders. 

 From the variety of their feveral operations, thefe teeih camprehend 

 in abftratt all the powers of cutting, dividing, and triturating, that 

 are partially difperfed among other animals; they accommodate to 

 every fpecies of vegetable as well as animal food ; and, together with 

 the ftomach, fliew, that man was formed to derive bis fuftenance 

 from both or either of theie alimentary clafles, at his pleafure. The 

 wonders of man's organization are multiplied through every part of 

 his body, infomuch that anatomifts confefs, that the ftrudure is, 

 to any ftrict enquirer, an abyfs, which fwallows up both our eyes 

 and reafon. iith. The human voice, merely as a voice, is not ex- 

 traordinary, fince other animals have a voice as well as man. But 

 fpeech puts an immenfe diftance between man and the animak. The 

 merit of fpeech does not confift in noife, but in the variety of its 

 infleftions and univerfality of fignification. Man can exprefs his 

 thoughts very variouOy. If making one's felf underftood is the fame 

 as fpeaking, we may of courfe fpeak with the foot, the eye, or the hand. 

 A man, who feems tranfported with joy, or overwhelmed with grief, 

 has already told us many things before he opens his mouth. His eyes, 

 his features, his geftures, his whole countenance, correfpond with his 

 mind, and make it very well underftood. He [peaks from head to 

 foot: all his motions are fignificant, and his expreffions are as infinite 

 as his thought. But his voice takes place of thefe figns whenever he 

 pleafes, and is not only equivalent to them, but even fufficient alone to 

 explain diftindly what they cannot exprefs when combined together. 

 Speech was fuperadded to all thefe figns,that man fiiould not want any 

 means of explaining himfelf clearly. In every thing, man alone unites 

 the prerogatives that have been granted but lingly to any particular 

 fpecies, and his dignity arifes from the right iije to which his reafon 

 enables him to apply his corporeal powers and fenfes. 



If then, the pre-eminence of man over the brute creation be difplayed 

 in the ftrud'lure of his body, and the feveral infgnia which the ingeni- 

 ous author has enumerated, it follows of courfe, that the oran-outang 



poffe fling 



