HOMO. MAMMALIA. 33 



ORDER I. BIMANA. 



TEETH of three kinds ; the posterior extremities proper for walk* 

 ing ; the anterior furnished with hands ; nails Hat ; body ver- 

 tical ; two pectoral mammae ; stomach simple ; orbital and 

 temporal fossae distinct. 



Genus, HOMO. Incisors f , canines j-j, molars |-f = 32. 

 Species, HOMO sapiens. Man. 



MAN stands alone in the order and genus to which naturalists 

 have referred his species. Differing widely in physical conforma- 

 tion from all other classes of animated beings, and distinguished by 

 reason and the power of speech, this wonderfully constructed being 

 seems the bond of connection between the material and immaterial 

 worlds. Possessed of mental powers which raise him beyond the 

 level of the surrounding creation, and connect him with higher or- 

 ders of existences, Man is the only being who looks forward to fu- 

 turity, and intuitively perceives his connection ' with and depen- 

 dence upon the great Source of Intelligence. While the inferior ani- 

 mals enjoy unalloyed the blessings of life and present enjoyment, 

 Man combines the past, the present, and the future in his calcula- 

 tions of happiness ; and while some parts of his organization con- 

 nect him with the creatures around him, and sober his rule over 

 beings with animal feelings of pleasure and pain as acute as his 

 own, his intellectual powers, unfettered by the material organs 

 which are their instruments, trace the Divinity in all the parts of 

 creation. Hence has arisen the religious feeling among every tribe 

 of human beings, however rude j and Man alone seems to connect 

 himself with the Great Author of his being through the medium 

 of intellectual homage, and worships, according to his conceptions 

 of that Almighty Being, the Creator and Preserver of all. 



While reason places Man at such an infinite distance from the 

 inferior animals, the faculty of articulate speech, and an artificial 

 language, widens the barrier still farther ; for although some of the 

 animals possess the power of articulation in a considerable degree, 

 and can communicate by natural signs significant to those of their 

 own species, they totally fail in those powers which enable Man to 

 classify objects, and to employ sounds or signs as an instrument of 

 thought. Brutes possess indeed the powers of sensation, percep- 

 tion, and memory, and seem to be capable of intellectual operations 

 to a certain extent ; but their action is extremely limited, and 

 bounded to the supply of their bodily wants ; and though suscep- 

 tible of a species of education, their imitative powers are neither 

 subservient to the improvement of the individual nor the species. 



The faculty which seems to direct the inferior animals in most 

 of their operations, essentially different from any thing like human 

 intelligence, is called instinct. This wonderful faculty, surer in its 



VOL. T. 



