DISTRIBUTION OF THE HUMAN RACE. 595 



CHAPTER XIX. 



DISTRIBUTION OF THE HUMAN RACE. 



N the great scheme of creation immediately around us, we 

 have viewed unorganised matter destitute of life, and mat- 

 ter organised, as in the grass of the field, with life, 

 but destitute of sensation, and in the inferior animals, 

 with life, sensation, and a portion of knowledge ; but 

 in man the scale of being rises above mere animal 

 life and sensation, however delicate and varied, and 

 beyond mere instinct, whatever that mysterious faculty 

 may be, to rational existence, which constitutes him 

 " the minister and interpreter of nature." The most 

 sagacious and instinctive of the brute creation live 

 and die without the least comprehension of the vast 

 system of which they form a part ; but man is capable 

 of surveying the whole with thought and reflection, of understanding its economy and 

 purpose, of tracing the Author of the work, and marking the display of his perfections, 

 of yielding to Him adoration and homage, and sanctifying the varied scene to moral uses. 

 Sometimes, in the spirit of lurking infidelity to the announcements of Scripture respect- 

 ing the attention paid to our race by Divine Providence, philosophy has paraded before 

 us its demonstrations concerning the plan of the universe, and called upon us to con- 

 template its stately forms and vast dimensions. We may obey its summons, and return 

 from the contemplation with renewed ability to " vindicate the ways of God to man." 

 For what knows the sun of his own brightness, or the lightnings of their force, or the 

 planets of their velocity, or the ten thousand stars of their mighty proportions ? The 

 universe of material things can neither think nor feel, but is perfectly unconscious of 

 itself ; whereas man can appreciate to a certain extent its design, derive enjoyment from 

 its objects, track their course, comprehend their laws, gather from them an intellectual 

 apprehension of the wondrous Artificer, make them subservient to morals and devotion ; 

 and thus the grandeur of nature illustrates the greatness of man. 



Linnaeus placed man in the order of Quadrumana, or four-handed, in fellowship with 

 the monkey tribe, and even considered the genus Homo as consisting of two species; the 

 ouran-outang being the second, the congener of the human being. Cuvier, with an 

 obvious propriety, has departed from this classification, and placed man in an order by 

 himself, that of Bimana, or two-handed, in allusion to the prehensory organs with which 

 he is furnished. They are instruments of essential moment to their possessor, and 

 form a characteristic mark of his nobility, for, strictly speaking, he is the only bimane. 

 In several physical respects, man is far inferior to many of the lower animals. The 

 elephant is his superior in bulk and power, the hawk in sight, the antelope in 

 swiftness, the hound in scent, and the squirrel in agility. No animal, in the 

 infancy of existence, continues for so long a period in a state of helplessness and 

 dependence, or suffers for an equal interval infirmity in age. To every other animal 

 nature supplies an appropriate clothing, for which they " toil not, neither do they spin" 

 the office of man ; without which, he would live and die in the nakedness of his birth. 

 No parallel to his case can be found in the animal kingdom, in relation to the slowness of 



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