OF NATURAL HISTORY. 61 



on vegetables. Animal food heats the blood, and makes it circulate 

 with rapidity. In this fituation, every objedi: capable of exciting 

 appetite or paflion operates with redoubled force. The weak mind 

 yields to the impulfe, and gives vent to every fpecies of outrage 

 which can debafe human nature. 



In the formation of his body, man has fome advantages over par- 

 ticular animals. But thefe advantages are inconfiderable, "and none 

 of them, perhaps, are peculiar to the fpecies. The ftrudure of all 

 animals is nicely adjufted to their deftination, and the ftation they 

 occupy in the general fcale of Being. The body of man is ereft, 

 and his attitude is faid to be that of command. His majeftic de- 

 portment, and the firmnefs of his movements, announce the fuperio- 

 rity of his rank. His arms are not mere pillars for the fupport af 

 his body. His hands tread not the earth ; neither do they lofe, by 

 fridion andpreffure, that exquifite delicacy of feeling for which 

 Nature had originally intended them. His arms and hands, on the 

 contrary, are formed for purpofes of a more noble kind. They are 

 deftined for executing the commands of his will, for laying hold of 

 bodies, for removing obftacles, for defending him from injuries, and 

 for feizing and retaining objeds of pleafure. The features of this 

 pidure are exad delineations ; but they are not the exclufive pri- 

 vilege of man. The orang cutang v;a]ks ered, and he derives equal 

 advantages from his hands and arms as the human fpecies. Some 

 apes have likewife the power of walking eredt, with the additional 

 faculty of employing their hands and arms as legs. They can walk, 

 run, or leap, by the inftrumentality either of two or of four extre- 

 mities, as their fituation or neceffities may require. It is not, there- 

 fore, the fabric, of man's body that entitles him to claim a fuperio- 

 rity over the other animals. The formation of their bodies is ad- 

 jufted with equal fymmetry and perfedion to the rank they hold in 

 the g^eneral fyftem of ajiiraation. Many of them excel us in mag- 

 nitude,,. 



