MENTAL AND CORPOREAL. 279 



actions in which the hands alone are concerned, 

 as connected with our agriculture, our architec- 

 ture, our navigation, and our arts in all their 

 applications, domestic, and general ; embracing 

 those numerous articles of luxury which long 

 established habits have rendered almost indis- 

 pensible, and the various instruments of offence 

 and defence ; the bold execution and vast mag- 

 nitude of some, and the extreme minuteness and 

 ingenious adjustment of others ; we may readily 

 anticipate how helpless man would have been 

 without these important agents, and how trifling 

 and how insignificant are the manual qualifica- 

 tions of the qnadrumanous animals, even when 

 the structure of their hands would appear to im- 

 ply much greater capabilities than we find them 

 actually to possess. The hands, therefore, pre- 

 sent one of the most striking physical attributes 

 by which man is to be distinguished from the rest 

 of the animal kingdom. 



We should now have proceeded to the intel- 

 lectual attributes of the human species, had not a 

 subject presented itself, which, from its partaking 

 equally of an intellectual and organic character, 

 has rendered it difficult to be determined under 

 what head it shall be placed. We allude to the 

 attribute of speech, one of the noblest qualities 

 bestowed on man. 



Experience has taught us, that this very com- 

 prehensive power, depends upon the co-operation 



