THE HUMAN SPECIES. CGI 



with the sole exception of the positive extremes. His longevity 

 is more generally protracted, even in the midst of the eneivating 

 habits of high civilization ; his solid fibre gives a reasoned self- 

 possession and daring in vicissitudes, arising from the passions, 

 from accident, or from the elements ; and his reflective powers 

 find expedients to brave danger with self-possession and 

 impunity. 



The moral and intellectual character we find to be in unison 

 with his structure : the reasoning powers outstripping the mere 

 process of comparing sensations, and showing, in volition, more 

 elevated thought, more reasoning, justice, and humanity : he 

 alone of the races of mankind has produced examples of free 

 and popular institutions, and his physical characteristics have 

 maintained them in social life. By means of his logical intel- 

 lect, he has arrived at ideas requisite for the acquisition of 

 abstract truths : resorting to actual experiment, he fixed bases 

 whereon to build demonstrable inferences, when the positive 

 facts are not otherwise shown; he invented simple arbitrary 

 characters to represent words and musical sounds, and a few 

 signs which, nevertheless, denote, in their relative positions, 

 all the possible combinations of numbers and quantity ; he has 

 measured time and distance, making the sideral bodies uner- 

 ring guides to mark locality and give nautical direction ; he 

 has ascended to the skies, descended into the deep, and 

 mastered the powers of lightning. By mechanical researches 

 the bearded man has assuaged human toil, multiplied the 

 results of industry, and created a velocity of locomotion superior 

 to the flight of birds. By his chemical discoveries he has 

 modified bodily pain, and produced numberless discoveries 

 useful in medicine, in arts and manufactures. He has found 

 a sound and connected system of the sciences in general, and 

 acquired a critical literature, while, for more than three thou- 

 sand years, he has been the principal possessor of all human 

 knowledge, and the assertor of fixed laws. He has instituted 

 all the great religious systems in the world, and to his stock 

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