76 EDUCATION OF THE HAND ; 



The hand of the Greenlander reposes comfortably 

 on the ice, and that of the Bedouin just as comfort- 

 ably on the burning sand. The hand of the porter 

 is hardly sensible to an ounce, but it can move hun- 

 dredweights ; and while the hand of the delicate 

 workman would tremble or give way under these, it 

 feels to the minuteness of a grain. Allusion has 

 often been made to blind Dr. Moyes, who could feel 

 colours and shades of colour. And the blind en- 

 gineer of the midland counties felt the level of very 

 irregular surfaces with his feet, as accurately as any 

 engineer having eyes, with all his telescopes, and 

 levels, and scales for determining the variations. It 

 is impossible, indeed, to set a limit either to the 

 weight or to the measure which the human hand can 

 determine ; and not the hand only, but the foot or 

 any part of the body, so that there are muscles in 

 it. Lines can be ruled much more finely by mere 

 touch in the dark, than they can be by the eye with 

 the aid of all its microscopes ; and the number of 

 curves that a healthy and well-educated hand can 

 delineate is perfectly endless, and it can delineate 

 them as well in absolute darkness as in broad day. 



How varied are the tones produced by the touch 

 of the pianoforte, by pinching the holes of a flute, 

 or by fingering and bowing the strings of a violin. 

 These are all exquisite ; and the flute with Nicholson, 

 and the violin with Paganini, are almost superhu- 

 man, and give us a taste of what we would call ce- 

 lestial ; and yet, they arise from positively the sim- 

 plest of all imaginary causes the fine mensuration 

 of distance and space: the pressing a little more or 

 a little less with the finger : and any man who can 

 simply lay his palm on a loaf of bread, and feel that 

 he is so laying it, might educate himself up to those 

 exquisite touches, and have the delicious pleasure 

 of enjoying their effects whenever he chose. We 

 often neglect it, but we absolutely have a mine of 

 wealth in those ten fingers, which the longest and 



