Min] AND SYMBOLS. 223 



riorto his surroundings. His demeanour and his character may 

 botli be beautiful even though he has to do rough work. Indeed 

 we have known North Wales quarrymen, and English and 

 Welsh colliers and ironworkers, who in point of manners and 

 culture would compare most favourably with men in cities who 

 had never done anything but clean-looking work. Real man- 

 hood always stands out in attractive forms whatever may be its 

 honest occupation. The beetle turns unpleasant substances into 

 a beautiful appearance, and man creates a brilliant character out 

 of harsh elements. H. 



The Supremacy of Mind. 



From a general study of four-handed animals, we perceive 

 what few advantages the brute creation derive from, those organs 

 that in man are employed to so many great and useful purposes. 

 The being able to pluck their food from the trees, the capacity 

 of clinging among the branches, and at most of converting one 

 of those branches into a weapon of defence, are the highest 

 stretches of their sagacity, and the only use their hands have 

 hitherto been employed in ; and yet some superficial men have 

 asserted that the hands alone are sufficient to vindicate the 

 dominion of mankind over other animals, and that much of his 

 boasted reason is nothing more than the result of his happier 

 conformation. However, were this so, an ape or a monkey would 

 in some instances be more rational than we ; their fingers are 

 smaller, and in some of them more finely formed than ours. To 

 what a variety of purposes might they not be employed if their 

 powers were properly exerted ? Those works which we, from 

 the largeness of our fingers, are obliged to go clumsily about, 

 one of these could very easily perform with the utmost exact- 

 ness ; and if the fineness of the hand assisted reason, an ape 

 would be one of the most reasonable beings in the creation. 

 But these admirably formed machines are almost useless both to 

 mankind and themselves ; and contribute little more to the 

 happiness of animal life than the paws of the lowest quadruped. 

 They are supplied indeed with the organs, but they want the 

 mind to put them into action : it is that reasoning principle 

 alone, with which man has been endowed, that can adopt seem- 



