"Man, without doubt, is the highest link, the crown of the visi- 

 ble creation ; the last, the most finished production of the plastic 

 power of Nature ; the highest degree of its self-representation which 

 our eyes are capable of seeing, our senses of comprehending. With 

 him our sublunary prospect is closed ; he is the extreme point with 

 which and in which the sensible world borders on a higher spiritual 

 world. The organization of man is, as it were, a magic band, by 

 which two worlds of a totally different nature are connected and con- 

 joined; an eternally incomprehensible wonder, by which he becomes, 

 at the same time, an inhabitant of these two worlds, the material 

 and the intellectual. 



"One may, with propriety, consider man as a compendium of 

 Nature ; as a master-piece of conformation, in which all the active 

 powers scattered throughout the rest of nature, all kinds of organs 

 and forms of life, are united in one whole, act in concert, and, by 

 these means, make him, in the strictest sense, a little world ; a copy 

 and epitome of the greater, as he was so often called by the ancient 

 philosophers. 



" His life is the most expanded ; his organization the most delicate 

 and best finished ; his juices and component parts the most ennobled 

 and best prepared ; and his intensive life and self-consumption are, 

 therefore, the strongest. He has, consequently, more points of con- 

 tact with the whole of nature by which he is surrounded, and likewise 

 more wants ; but he has, also, a richer and more perfect restoration 

 than any other being. 



"The inanimate mechanical and chemical powers of nature; the 

 organic or living powers ; and that spark of divine power, the power 

 of thought, are here united and blended together in the most won- 

 derful manner, to form that godlike phenomenon which we call the 

 life of man." 



HUFELAND. 



48* 569 



