S/4 HISTORY OF 



Thus the fingtrs, by long habit, become greater masters in the 

 art than any other, even where the sensation is more deliciile 

 and tine.' It is from this habit, therefore, and their peculiar 

 formation, and not, as is supposed, from their being furnished 

 with a greater quantity of nerves, that the fingers are thus per- 

 fectly qualified to judge of forms. Blind men, who are obliged 

 to use them much oftener, have this sense much finer ; so that 

 the delicacy of the touch arises rather from the habit of con- 

 stantly employing the fingers, than from any fancied nervousness 

 ill their confirmation. 



All animals that are furnished with hands' seem to have more 

 .uiderstanding than others. Monkeys have so many actions 

 like those of men, that they appear to have similar ideas of the 

 form of bodies. All other creatures, deprived of hands, can 

 have no distinct ideas of the shape of the objects by which they 

 ai'e surrounded, as they want this organ, which serves to examine 

 and measure their forms, their risings, and depressions. A 

 quadruped, probably, conceives as erroneous an idea of any thing 

 near him, as a child would of a rock or a mountain that it be 

 held at a distance. 



It may be for this reason, that we often see them frighted at 

 things with which they ought to be better acquainted. Fishes, 

 whose bodies are covered with scales, and who have no organs 

 for feeling, must be the most stupid of all animals. Serpents, 

 that are likewise destitute, are yet, by winding round several 

 bodies, better capable of judging of their form. All these, how- 

 ever, can have but very imperfect ideas from feeling ; and we 

 have already seen, when deprived of this sense, how little the 

 ipst of the senses are to be relied on. 



The feeling, therefore, is the guardian, the judge, and the ex- 

 aminer of all the rest of the senses. It establishes their infor- 

 niatioii, and detects their errors. All the other senses are 

 altered by time, and contradict their former evidence ; but the 

 touch still continues the same ; and, though extremely confined 

 in its operations, yet it is never found to deceive. The uni- 

 verse, to a man who had only used the rest of his senses, would 

 tie but a scene of illusion ; every object misrepresented, and ail 

 its properties unknown. Mr Buflbn lias imagined a man just 



1 i;\ifii.ii, vol. vi. [). so. 2 Ibid. Vdl. vi. p. 82. 



