ADMIT OF CULTIVATION. 59 



deeply read in all the sciences. Yet that surface 

 lesson is one of great importance and value. We 

 should be regular and preserve our health, be- 

 cause that is the only way in which we can make 

 sure that nature will smell sweetly and taste deli- 

 ciously ; and even that is a secret worth knowing. 



Of all the human powers, the hand is perhaps 

 that which admits of the most education, because 

 its education is two-fold it may be educated in 

 knowing, and it may be educated in doing. The 

 education of the hand in doing is a matter of 

 observation, and any one hand can improve either 

 upon other hands or upon itself; but still that 

 improvement in performance is grounded upon 

 improvement of the hand in knowledge ; and of 

 its process in knowing we know about as little as 

 we do of that of the palate in tasting, or of the 

 nose in smelling. It consists but of one process 

 the contact of one substance with another ; and 

 the most acute observation cannot divide that into 

 parts so as to obtain a more intimate acquaintance 

 with it ; and whenever we can no farther divide 

 or analyze, we come to the ultimate fact, and can 

 know no more than simply that it is. 



And yet the education of the hand in knowing, 

 and the state to which it may be brought by cir- 

 cumstances, are very wonderful, and in some in- 

 stances would appear almost incredible. The hand 

 of the blacksmith is so educated as to handle iron 

 that would burn, and the hand of the sailor is so 

 educated that it can glide safely along a rope 

 which would cut any other person to the bones. 



The hand of the Greenlander reposes comfort- 

 ably on the ice, and that of the Bedouin just as 

 comfortably on the burning sand. The hand of 



