MAN'S SUPERIORITY 19 



He sustains himself on his feet, thus giving free play to 

 his hands. The pelvis, the great bones at the bottom of 

 the trunk, rest securely in ball and socket joints upon the 

 stout pillars of the legs, giving enormous strength to the 

 frame when in a vertical position. A practised man can 

 carry upon his shoulders a weight of several hundred 

 pounds, whereas a horse can carry with comfort not 

 more than a hundred pounds ; and it is a good camel 

 that can carry a quarter of a ton for any considerable 

 distance. The strength of the horse lies in the direction 

 of its own axis, which is horizontal, and consequently it 

 can draw far more than it can carry. Upon rails one 

 animal has been known to draw a distance of several miles 

 a weight exceeding fifty tons, which would be absolutely 

 immovable against the united strength of several men. 



The human hand is situated so as to render it easily avail- 

 able as an instrument of observation. Strong and powerful, 

 it is nevertheless exquisitely sus- 

 ceptible of the most delicate impres- 

 sions. Every finger, except the ring 

 finger, is capable of independent 

 movement, a power which is pos- 

 sessed by no other animal ; the 

 thumb is so elongated that it readily 

 meets the tips of one or all of the 

 fingers, and the fingers themselves, 

 and especially their extremities, 

 possess a discriminating sensibility 

 which is peculiar to man. 



That he is naked, and that his THE HUMAN HAND. 



physical construction affords him 



no effective weapons of offence or defence, detract no 

 whit from his superiority over the brute creation, since 

 the very deficiency does but cause him to summon aid 

 from his internal resources, his fertile mind, his reasoning 

 faculties. He clothes himself ; he constructs dwellings 

 to protect himself from the weather and to defy the inroads 

 of ferocious animals ; his knowledge of the forces of nature 

 enables him to construct weapons that drive to a distance 

 or exterminate the intractable ; the more docile he subdues 



