Quadrupeds: or, outlines of a popular history of the class mammalia; with a particular notice of those mentioned in Scripture.
- Religious Tract Society (Great Britain)
- Date:
- 1840
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: Quadrupeds: or, outlines of a popular history of the class mammalia; with a particular notice of those mentioned in Scripture. Source: Wellcome Collection.
13/176 (page 5)
![i BIMANA.] MAN. 5 from inferior creatures;—we mean his attitude, the freedom and exquisite mechanism of his hands, and his natural deficiency in weapons of aggression or defence. With the attitude of man we naturally asso¬ ciate ideas of exaltation; and this attitude is in truth connected with his moral greatness : no quadruped approaches him in volume or extent of brain; and the blood necessary for an organ so developed is carried to it by arteries, which do not subdivide as in most quadrupeds, but allow that full and free circulation its energies require : hence, an horizontal position would induce a per¬ petual liability to apoplexy, and render every bodily or mental exertion a hazardous experi¬ ment. Man (sustaining himself on his feet alone) pre¬ serves the entire liberty of his hands; and the situation of these organs is that which is best cal¬ culated to render them available and useful. But great as are the advantages derived from their liberty, more are attributable to their structure. The human hand is strong and powerful, but at the same time exquisitely susceptible of impres¬ sions, and gifted with the most delicate tact. Every finger, except that called the ring finger, is capa¬ ble of independent movements, a power pos¬ sessed by no other animal; and the thumb is so elongated as to meet readily the tips of any of the fingers : the fingers themselves, and especially the pulpy tips at their extremities, are freely supplied by a nervous tissue, which communicates a discriminating sensibility peculiar to our race. Hence the admirable fitness of the hand for the prehension and examination of the minutest ob¬ jects, and the precision with which its actions are executed. Man possesses neither offensive nor defensive weapons; but this very deficiency adds to his improvement, inasmuch as it throws him back upon his internal resources, and calls forth the energies of his mind. His first step in civiliza¬ tion is to clear out a spot of ground for his dwell¬ ing ; resist the inroads of the wild and ferocious animals ; drive to a distance or exterminate the intractable; and subdue the more docile to him¬ self. Art supplies the means which nature has withheld; and the rude hunter of the forest founds an abode, and rears a family to be the forefathers of a mighty nation. Multiplying after the subsidence'of the deluge, the human race has spread itself over every por¬ tion of the globe, and ramified into a thousand tongues and nations. Capable of inhabiting every climate, and in every situation surrounding himself with the necessaries of life, Man peoples the burning regions of the torrid zone, and the ice-girt shores of the Arctic Ocean. To him the mountain, the valley, the morass, and the desert, are alike ; and, modifying his food according to locality, he thrives upon rice, and the plantain, and the palm-nut on the plains of India; upon the raw flesh and blubber of the seal, on the frozen snows of Greenland. Between these points there are innumerable grades and distinctions in habits, in manners, in food, in civilization, and moral qualities ; but different as the tribes into which the human race is divided may appear, they may be ultimately reduced to about five standing va¬ rieties, the descendants of a common parent. These have been characterised as the Caucasian^ which includes the nations of Europe, and such in ancient times as have been most distinguished for civilization and power; the Mongolian, to which are referred the mighty empires of China and Japan; the Ethiopian, occupying the interior of Africa; the American; and the Malay, which includes the natives of the peninsula of Malacca, and of Borneo, Java, the isles of the Indian ocean, Australia, and the islands of the Pacific. To these, perhaps, some others may be added. It were useless to inquire, and impossible to give any satisfactory solution, or theory, upon which to account for the hereditary characteris¬ tics which attach to these different varieties of mankind : climate, food, modes of life in remote ages, a primeval peculiarity in the original pa¬ rents, which has continued itself to their latest descendants, or causes now unknown, and which have long ceased to operate, may have all in their turn contributed. One feature, however, which pervades human nature through all its varieties, in every age, in every nation, proclaims a common origin. History, however remotely we trace its records, whether sacred or profane, discovers this trait in every page, and our own experience has made ns acquainted with it: we mean the universal degeneracy of the human race ; a fact which, however men may have differed as to its cause, has in every generation been acknowledg¬ ed ; and, as if the memory of Eden still lingered on the earth, has been blended with a looking back to a traditionary period of innocence and | purity before “ all flesh had corrupted his way ;” and the sage and the poet have alike lamented the long-passed golden age. But amidst the errors of the ancient philosophers and the vain speculations of the modern, the Christian has a sure word of revelation, which at once clears up the mystery; and he learns that by one man’s disobedience sin entered the world, and death by sin. Hence the Scriptures may emphatically be said to contain an account of the Natural History of the Human Race, presenting us with our true origin and destiny. Who can read the affecting details, the touching histories, the striking narra¬ tives, which those records so simply and so beau¬ tifully portray, without feelings of sympathy and delight ? Who can reflect, without admiration and instruction, upon the deep knowledge of hu¬ man nature they unfold, from the time in which Adam fell, through successive ages, and in every condition of society; to the times of primitive simplicity, when Abraham led his son Isaac up the mount of Moriah, thus shadowing forth a Saviour that should become an offering for sin ; and up to the days of refinement and luxury, when Felix trembled on his throne, and Paul preached the “ unknown God” at Athens ? The Scriptures, thus interesting to our feelings, by the pictures of human characters and motives they display, contain subjects of a higher im¬ port, subjects more nearly connected with our eternal welfare : they alone teach the true nature of God, and of ourselves as immortal beings; they alone give us an account of Man’s first trans¬ gression and apostasy, by which a stain has been transmitted down the chain of human existence, contaminating every child of Adam, and bring¬ ing death into the world. Hence do they insist](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b29293005_0013.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
