THE PHENOMENA OF ORGANIC NATURE. 155 



Avliich follows on a variation in sti'ucture, may be enor- 

 mously greater than the variation of the structure, then, 

 you see, the objection falls to the ground. 



Take a couple of watches — made by the same maker, 

 and as completely alike as possible ; set them upon the 

 table, and the function of each — which is its rate of going 

 — will be performed in the same manner, and you shall 

 be able to distinguish no difference between them ; but 

 let me take a pair of pincers, and if my hand is steady 

 enough to do it, let me just lightly crush together the 

 bearings of the balance-wheel, or force to a slightly 

 different angle the teeth of the escapement of one of 

 them, and of course you know the immediate result 

 will be that the watch, so treated, from that moment 

 will cease to go. But what proportion is there between 

 the structural alteration and the functional result ? Is 

 it not perfectly obvious that the alteration is of the 

 minutest kind, yet that slight as it is, it has produced 

 an infinite difference in the performance of the functions 

 of these two instruments ? 



Well, now, apply that to the present question. What 

 is it that constitutes and makes man what he is? 

 What is it but his power of language — that language 

 giving him the means of recording his experience — 

 making every generation somewhat wiser than its 

 predecessor, — more in accordance with the established 

 order of the universe ? 



What is it but this power of speech, of recording 

 experience, which enables men to be men — looking 

 before and after and, in some dim sense, understanding 

 the working of this wondrous universe— and which 

 distinguishes man from the whole of the brute world? 



