192 



LETTERS ON TREES. 



allied to the higher orders of the lower animals, that 

 all the phenomena of life as occurring in him may be 

 illustrated by the corresponding phenomena as occur- 

 ring in them.*^ Even in his instincts he partakes with 

 them of a common nature. 



6. But man is somewhat more than this. The or- 

 ganised body is merely the material tabernacle in 

 which man dwells, and through the medium of which 

 he has " a local habitation and a name/'' It is but 

 the seat and the instrument of the immaterial prin- 

 ciple which constitutes his proper self. And identical 

 as it isj in structure and in function with the orc^anised 

 bodies of the lower animals, there is yet that in it, 

 different from theirs — its erect altitude and the pecu- 

 liar conformation of the head and face and hands, which 

 bespeaks for its occupant a higher nature than theirs. 



7. What, then, is man, viewed as an immaterial 

 spirit ; and what his relations to his Maker, and what 

 his rank in creation ? These are questions which it is 

 more easy to ask than satisfactorily to resolve. JSTor 

 do I see that without Revelation to guide us we can 

 advance far in this inquiry. In times past, unassisted 

 human reason did but grope in the dark, and arrived 

 at no definite conclusion. Yet reason thus enhghtened 

 may approximate towards a satisfactory solution of 

 them. I say approximate, because we must bear in 

 mind that much of the information given us in Scrip- 



* Alison. Outlines of Physiology ^ 3d ed. p. 9. 



