Ii8 • iv. 10. 



of his superior intelligence. For the hands are instruments or. 

 organs, and the invariable plan of nature in distributing the organs 

 is to give each to such animal as can make use of it; nature 

 acting in this matter as any prudent man would do. For to 

 such an one it would seem much more appropriate to take a 

 person who was already a flute-player and give him a .flute, than 

 to take one who possessed a flute and teach him the art of 

 flute-playing. For by the former plan something comparatively 

 insignificant would be added to something of much greater 

 importance; while by the latter the more valuable and the more 

 important element would be superadded to the less yaluable one. 

 Seeing then that it is a better plan to assign an instrument" to 

 a workman than to assign a workman to an instrument, and 

 seeing also that of all available plans nature invariably adopts 

 the best, we must conclude that man does not owe his superior 

 intelligence to his hands, but his hands to his superior intelligence.'* 

 For the most intelligent of animals is the one which would put 

 the most organs to the best use; and the hand is apparently 

 not a single organ but many in one ; for it is an organ that can 

 serve in the place of many. This instrument, then, — the hand — 

 of all instruments the most variously serviceable; has been given 

 by nature to man, the animal of all animals the most capable of 

 acquiring the most varied handicrafts. 



Much in error then are they, who say that the construction of 

 man is not only faulty, but inferior to that of all other animals; 

 seeing that he is, as they point out, barefooted, naked, and without 

 weapon of which to. avail himself For other animals have each 

 but one mode of defence, and this they can never change; so that 

 they must perform all the offices of life and even, so to speak, 

 sleep with sandals on, never laying aside whatever serves as 

 a protection to their bodies, nor changing such single weapon as 

 they may chance to possess. But to man numerous modes of 

 defence are open, and these moreover he may .change at will ; 

 as also he may adopt such weapon as he pleases, and at such 

 times as suit him. For the hand is talon, hoof, and horn, at will. 

 So too is it spear, and sword, and whatsoever other weapon or 

 instrument you please ; for all these can it be from its power of 

 grasping and holding them all.^^ In harmony with this varied 

 office is the form which nature has contrived for it. For it is 

 split into several divisions, and these are capable of divergence. 

 687b. 



