On the adaptation of external nature to the physical condition of man: principally with reference to the supply of his wants and the exercise of his intellectual faculties / by John Kidd.

  • Kidd, John, 1775-1851
Date:
1852
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: On the adaptation of external nature to the physical condition of man: principally with reference to the supply of his wants and the exercise of his intellectual faculties / by John Kidd. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    48/389 (page 28)
    converse witli Plato and Aristotle, and all the venerable sages of antiquity.” In reasoning on the utility of the hand, as charac- teristic of the human species, Galen thus expresses liimself: * “ Man being naturally destitute of corporeal weapons, as also of any instinctive art, has received a compensation, first in the gift of that j)ectiliar instru- ment the hand, secondly in the gift of reason; by the employment of which two gifts he arms and protects his body in every mode, and adorns his mind -with the knowledge of every art. For since, had he been fuiTiished with any natural v'eapon, he would have possessed the use of this alone on all occasions; or had he been gifted with any instmctive art, he would never have attained to the exercise of other aids ; hence he was created destitute of those insulated and individual means and arts, which characterise other animals; inasmuch as it is manifestly preferable to have the liower of making use of various means and various arts. Rightly, therefore, has Aristotle defined the hand to be the instrument antecedent to, or productive of, all other instruments: and rightly might we, in imitation of Ajristotle, define reason, as opposed to instinct, to be the art antecedent to, or productive of, all other arts. For as the hand, though itself no particular organ, is yet capable of being adapted to all other organs, and is consequently antecedent to them; so reason, though itself no particular art, is yet capable of comprehending and applying all; and may therefore he considered as an art antecedent to all others. Thus man alone, of