426 CORPOREAL CHARACTERISTICS OP MAN. 



and noble.* Among the beings beheld by Satan in Milton k 

 Paradise, 



" Two of far nobler shape, erect and tall, 



Godlike erect, with native honour clad, 



In naked majesty seemed lords of all." t 



The erect posture is natural and peculiar to man. J All nations 

 walk erect, and, among those individuals who have been dis- 

 covered in a wild and solitary state, there is no well authenticated 

 instance of one whose progression was on all-fours. If we 

 attempt this mode of progression, we move either on the knees 

 or the points of the toes, throwing the legs obliquely back to a 

 considerable distance 5 we find ourselves insecure and uneasy ; 

 our eyes instead of looking forwards are directed to the ground ; 



* Consult Bramenbach, De Generis Humani Varietate Nativa. Sect. i. 

 De hominis a csetcris animalibus differentia, 

 f Paradise Lost. Book iv. 288. 



X There is little necessity in the present day to attempt the refutation of the 

 ridiculous opinion that man is destined to walk on all-fours. But I do so for 

 the purpose of displaying many peculiarities of our structure. 



It is almost incredible that a thinking man could have entertained it for a 

 moment, any more than the idea of our naturally having tails. Yet this is the 

 fact ; and, in exquisite ridicule of such philosophers, Butler makes Hudibras, 

 after proving to his mistress by his beard that he is no gelding, fruitlessly urge 

 his erect posture in proof that he is not a horse. 



" Next it appears I am no horse, 

 That I can argue and discourse, 

 Have but two legs, and ne'er a tail— 

 Cjuoth she, That nothing will avail ; 

 For some philosophers of late here 

 Write, men have four legs by nature, 

 And that 'tis custom makes them go, 

 Erroneously upon but two. 

 UAs 'twas in Germany made a good 

 B* a boy that lost himself in a wood, 

 And growing t ' a man was wont 

 With wolves upon all-four to hunt." 



Hudibras. Part ii Canto i 



