COMMON THINGS MAN. 



members, and more especially those of the hand, are susceptible, 

 is, nevertheless, in some of his physical attributes, immeasurably 

 inferior to other animals which correspond with him nearly in 

 size. He is neither swift of foot to pursue his prey or fly from 

 his enemies ; nor is he supplied with any natural weapons of 

 attack or defence, such as those which are found among the 

 numerous classes of animals around him, He is not only feeble 

 and defenceless, but Nature has refused to provide him with those 

 means of protection from the inclemency of the elements, which 

 she has so beneficently supplied to those who hold a lower place in 

 the chain of organised beings. He has neither the far of the 

 beast, nor the feathers of the bird, to protect him from the rigours 

 of temperature, and yet his body is covered with a skin and 

 integuments abounding in nerves, which render it ten thousand 

 times more sensitive than the skin of any of these creatures which 

 Nature has so carefully and tenderly protected. 



20. In coming into the world, he is more helpless and delicate 

 than the young of any other creature, and continues for a much 

 longer period dependent, not for his well-being only, but for his 

 very existence, upon the assiduous and never-ceasing solicitude 

 and tenderness of his parents. 



21. Yet this creature, thus naturally poor, feeble, naked, 

 helpless, and defenceless, is the lord and master of the material 

 world. By him the strongest is subdued, the fiercest tamed, 

 the swiftest overtaken. He cannot rise into the air, never- 

 theless he arrests its inhabitants in their flight and brings them 

 to his feet. He cannot descend into the waters, nevertheless 

 he calls forth from the chambers of the deep their tenants, for the 

 supply of his wants and the gratification of his appetites. His 

 body is unprotected by any natural covering, but the beasts of the 

 forest and the birds of the air are compelled to surrender for his 

 use their fur , and their plumage. Innumerable textile plants, 

 which in their natural state would be unavailing, are adapted by 

 his art to supply the materials by which clothing for his body can 

 be made in unbounded quantity. Unable to endure the vicissi- 

 tudes of temperature and climate, the earth itself is compelled to 

 surrender its bowels, and to supply inexhaustible quantities of 

 fuel, by which artificial heat is produced to moderate the rigours 

 of cold and equalise temperature. He is not swift of foot to 

 pursue or to fly, but he tames for his use the swiftest of sub- 

 ordinate creatures, which with the most absolute obedience 

 transport him where he wills. Not satisfied even -,iith this, his 

 inventive powers have created engines of transport which carry 

 him over the face of the waters, in spite of opposing wind and 

 tide, and over the surface of the land, with a speed which 



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