CHAPTER IT. 



Form of the body its beauty. The master-pieces which it has inspired. 

 Description of the skin its functions. 



Nature, in modelling animals, has marvellously adapted 

 their forms to the functions and to the mode of life to which 

 .she has destined them; but no creature has received in the 

 same degree as man, that mingling of strength and of elegance 

 in contour, of grandeur and delicacy in the lines, and in no 

 other has she taken such care to distinguish the two sexes in 

 bestowing upon them her most precious gifts. It is of the 

 human race alone that BufTon could say: "Man has strength 

 and majesty; beauty and the graces are the dowry of the 

 other sex." 



The fabulist, using the poet's privilege, makes the lion say 



''Lions might hold the upper hand, 

 If they but had the art to paint." 



Doubtless in comparing himself with certain animals, man 

 cannot ignore his inferiority in muscular strength and in the 

 arms which nature has given him; but what matters it? He 

 feels his superiority to these beings, though they are stronger 

 and better armed than he. He knows how to avoid their 

 attacks and to triumph over their brute force. He constrains 

 them to his service, and disposes of their lives and of their 

 bodies, by obeying not a blind instinct but the voice of reason. 

 If he believes himself first among the dwellers on his planet, 

 it is not his vanity which persuades, but his intelligence that 

 proves it to him, and gives him the right to treat all other 

 creatures as their master. 



We admire the majestic bearing of a tree, the elegance of 



