THE ANTERIOR LIMBS OF QUADRUPEDS. 27 



arm of man be useless to the lower animals, 

 while that even of the orang would, be inap- 

 propriate to man. The perfection of harmony 

 runs through the organic structure of aU crea- 

 tures, and every being is in itself perfect. 

 When, therefore, we say that man stands, in 

 " form and moving," above all the lower crea- 

 tion — " the paragon of animals," we thereby 

 imply that his organization bespeaks his tower- 

 ing intellectual supremacy, his moral nature, 

 his great destiny ; and that, therefore, physic- 

 ally, because he is so morally, he is the most 

 excellent of creation, on our globe. 



The arm and hand of man — and the same 

 observation applies to the corresponding parts 

 of all animals — constitute but one instrument 

 every portion of which is requisite to the per- 

 fection of the whole ; and when, io general 

 terms, we speak of one, we include also the 

 other part. Nevertheless the arm may be 

 divided into the hand, the fore-arm, and the 

 upper-arm, or humerus. 



Let us look at the hand. — ^We see in it an 

 instrument capable of grasping with vast energy 

 and tenacity, or of compressing so gently as 

 not to injure the delicate wing of the ephemera; 

 it seizes the handle of the ponderous sledge- 



