30 NATURAL HISTORY OF MAN. 



the position of the head, its weight, and the absence of the cer- 

 vical ligament, which in quadrupeds serves to sustain this part of 

 the body, would not permit him to keep it elevated, and his eyes 

 being directed downwards to the ground, he would not be able to 

 see before him. But this position would not be one of restraint 

 only, it would be impossible to maintain it for any length of time, 

 because the arteries which go to the brain, are not sub-divided in 

 man, as they are in many quadrupeds ; and their size being very 

 considerable, the blood would be carried to this delicate organ 

 with so much force that apoplexy would frequently result. 



7. Man is the only one of the mammalia that is truly bimana and 

 biped (two-handed, and two-footed.) The monkey which re- 

 sembles him iii many respects, has the superior extremities dis- 

 posed like his, but the foot is very different ; it is strictly a true 

 hand fitted for seizing and climbing, while our foot can in no 

 manner, serve as an organ of prehension, because the toes have 

 but little flexibility, and the great toe, (answering to the thumb,) is 

 larger than the other toes (which correspond to the fingers of the 

 hand,) and being placed upon the same line, is not opposable to 

 them. 



8. 4th. The perfection of his vocal apparatus. He is the only 

 animal of this class that can articulate sounds, and it is to this 

 faculty that he is indebted for language. 



9. But man who is so much favoured in regard to his intelligence 

 and skill, has not the advantage as regards strength. His swift- 

 ness in the race is much less than that of animals of his stature, 

 and Nature has not endowed him with arms either for defence or 

 attack. The greater part of his body is unprotected, even by 

 hair, from the inclemencies of the weather, and he is of all animals, 

 the longest in acquiring the strength necessary to enable him to 

 supply his own wants. 



10. If God had not given to man a social instinct, a love for 

 society, and the powerful intelligence which distinguishes him, 

 he would have been one of the most miserable beings that in- 

 habit the surface of the earth, and probably his race would have soon 

 disappeared ; but this instinctive impulse, joined to a sense of 

 his weakness, has brought him to living in society with his fellow- 

 men, and now, his intellectual faculties have enabled him to derive 

 something from all that surrounds him, towards insuring his sub- 

 sistence and happiness. 



7. In what particulars do monkeys differ from man? 



8. To what faculty is man indebted for language ? 



9. In what respect is man superior to other animals ? In what is he in- 

 ferior to them ? 



10. What circumstances render man able to secure his subsistence and 

 happiness 1 



