167 



of which, we are constantly talking, and pretending 

 to regulate and direct. When we come to dwell 

 upon it, we become dreadfully puzzled and per- 

 plexed, and are apt to think we are making use of a 

 word to which there is attached no real meaning 

 no material or tangible representative in the nature 

 of things. But let us for a moment attend to' a few 

 of the many striking facts involved in the structure 

 and constitution of man. There is no single object 

 in this globe which contains such a collection of 

 wonders as the frame of the meanest mortal. If 

 any plant is a great problem if any insect is a 

 liviug mystery if every animal is a riddle which 

 no man can fully read, we might fairly assume that 

 a structure where mind and matter were to meet ; 

 where dust was for the first time to be fitted up 

 as a mansion for spirit, would prove to be a 

 stupendous prodigy of skill. And in whatever light 

 we choose to regard it whether as a complicated 

 machine whose organs have been set for a run of 

 three score years and ten ; or as a great laboratory 

 in which chemical operations proceed with far more 

 precision than in crucibles and glass retorts; this 

 must be always our conclusion that an apparatus 

 which has been planned with so much wisdom, 

 which has been designed for such a multitude of 

 purposes must be a perfect miracle in the flesh. 



Let us for a moment glance at the materials of 

 which the human body is constructed. We speak 

 not of the simple nor the ultimate materials. If a 

 chemist catch a man, and thrust him into a retort, 



