'IX. Effects of the Motion of the Air, as connected with Human 75 X. Effects of the Motion of the Air, as connected with the 80 CHAP. VII ADAPTATION OF MINERALS TO THE PHYSICAL CONDITION OF MAN SECT. I. The general Characters of Minerals II. Application of Minerals to Architecture and Sculpture IV. The Distribution and relative Proportions of Sea and Land; 85 85 86 92 V. Beds of Gravel VI. Metals VII. Common Salt, &c. 95 108 CHAP. VIII. ADAPTATION OF VEGETABLES TO THE PHYSICAL CONDITION OF MAN - SECT. I. General Observations on the Vegetable Kingdom II. The Cocoa-nut Tree, including the Formation of Coral Reefs 109 IV. Vegetables as applicable to Medicine V. Vegetables as applicable to the Arts, &c. CHAP. IX. ADAPTATION OF ANIMALS TO THE PHYSICAL CONDITION OF SECT. I. General Observations on the Animal Kingdom II. Geographical Distribution of Animals III. The Camel IV. Domestication of Animals - V. Animals as a Source of Food VI. Manufacture of Sal Ammoniac VII. Animals as a Source of Clothing, &c. CHAP. X. ADAPTATION OF THE EXTERNAL WORLD TO THE EXERCISE OF THE INTELLECTUAL FACULTIES OF MAN SECT. I. On the Rise and Progress of Human Knowledge fication of Animals IV. On those Animal Forms called Monsters, or Lusus Naturæ - 154 171 ON THE ADAPTATION OF EXTERNAL NATURE TO THE PHYSICAL CONDITION OF MAN. CHAPTER I. INTRODUCTION. SECTION I. The Physical Condition of Man. WHEN Hamlet, in contemplating the grandeur of creation, breaks forth into that sublime apostrophe on man-" How noble in reason! how infinite in faculties! in form and moving, how express and admirable! in action, how like an angel! in apprehension, how like a God! the beauty of the world! the paragon of animals!"-who does not feel elated by the description? who does not feel conscious of its truth? Nor is its truth the less admissible, because the poet, in concentrating the powers of his imagination on the excellences of that work of creation which bears the stamp of the Creator's image, has omitted to present to our view the reverse of the impression, the frailty namely of our fallen nature: for although, on moral and religious considerations, each individual is bound habitually to take the one view in conjunction with the other; in a simple philosophical contemplation of human nature we are not precluded by any reasonable barrier, from taking such a partial view of the subject as the occasion may suggest. In the present instance, indeed, I am strictly called upon to consider, not the moral, but the physical condition of man: and to examine how far the state of external nature is adapted to that condition; whether we regard the provisions made for the supply of man's wants, either natural or acquired; or those which are made for the exercise of his intellectual faculties. The following treatise naturally, therefore, divides itself into two parts: in the first of which it is intended to investigate and describe the physical condition of man; in the second, the adaptation of external nature to that condition. But a wide field here opens to our view: for man cannot, under any circumstances, be considered as an insulated being; or unconnected with the rest of animated nature. He is indeed but one link in the great chain of animal creation; and not only does the contemplation of his condition lose half its interest, if separated from the contemplation of the condition of other animals; but it cannot be satisfactorily investigated without that aid. And, again, animal life itself is but one among many modes of existence, by which the Creator has manifested his omnipotence; and which it is necessary to contemplate in connexion with the general phenomena of nature, in order to show the superiority of that province, at the head of which human beings have been placed. In attempting however to form a just estimate of the physical condition of man, we must not regard him merely under the aspect of savage or uncivilized life, and consider this as his natural state: for it may be presumed that, at the present day, such a puerile view of the question is not for a moment entertained by any one capable of philosophical reflection. In fact, in as many different states as man does actually exist, civilised or savage, so many are his natural states. If any indeed could be pre-eminently called his natural state, it would be that of civilization for not only does experience show that his natural tendency is towards such a state; but we know, from the highest authority, that the existence of man is connected with a moral end; (with more indeed than a moral end; since morals have immediately a relation to this life only, while man is destined for a future;) and a moral end is hardly attainable in an uncivilized state of society. SECTION II. The general Constitution of external nature. THE more familiar objects of that external world by which man is surrounded are usually distributed into three kingdoms, as they are called; the animal, vegetable, and mineral: but for the purpose of this treatise it will be necessary to take into our account the phenomena of the atmosphere also. The atmosphere principally consists of the air which we respire; (a form of matter so subtle, in all its states, as to be invisible ;) together with a variable proportion of water, of which a part is always retained in close combination with the air; and, like the air itself, exists always in an invisible state. There are also diffused through the atmosphere those still more subtle agents, heat and electricity. But all these, though of so subtle a substance, are in their occasional effects the most powerful agents of nature. For, omitting the consideration of their silent but wonderful operation, as exhibited in the process of vegetation, and in many other processes less open to observation, let us consider the occasional effects of air in the violence of a tornado; or of water, in the inundation of a rapid river: or let us contemplate the effect of either an indefinite diminution or increase of heat; on the one hand, the natural process of animal decomposition arrested by its abstraction, so that the imbedded mammoth remains at this moment in the same state that it was four thousand years ago; and in which, under the same circumstances, it undoubtedly would be, four thousand or four million years hence; on the other hand, the possibility of the dissipation of all the constituent parts of matter, or their fixation in the state of glass, resulting from the agency of indefinitely increased heat: or, lastly, let us consider the tremendous effects of condensed electricity in the form of lightning and we shall necessarily. acknowledge that though in their usual state the constituents of the atmosphere are among the most tranquil agents of nature, yet, when their power is concentrated, they are the most awfully energetic. In the mineral kingdom the most characteristic property of the several species appears to be a disposition to a pecular mode of mutual attraction among the particles composing the individuals belonging to them; from which attraction, when exerted under the most favourable circumstances, result that symmetry and regularity of form, to which the term crystal has been applied. The transparency and degree of hardness of crystals are various, and depend much upon external circumstances. The form is fundamentally the same for each species, though capable of being modified according to known laws; and the substance is chemically the same throughout its whole extent. Every atom of a crystallized mass of gypsum consists of water, lime, and sulphuric acid, united in the same proportions as are found to exist in the whole mass, or in any given part of it. The individuals of the vegetable kingdom differ very remarkably from those of the mineral, both in form and substance. In their form we see nothing like the mathematical precision of crystallization; and in their substance they differ widely, according to the part of the vegetable which is examined: so that, independently of previous knowledge of the species, we could hardly discover any natural relation between the several constituent parts of the individual. What is there in the insulated leaf of a rose or of a peach tree, that would lead us to expect the fruit of the one or the flower of the other? But the most remarkable line of distinction between vegetables and the individuals of the preceding kingdom consists in their mode of increase and reproduction. Minerals can only increase, as such, by the apposition of particles specifically similar to themselves; and accompanying Treatises, that such a conviction, if not already existing, may be produced by its perusal. Without questioning, therefore, on the present occasion, the intellectual powers or the moral motives of those who profess themselves sceptics with respect to either natural or revealed religion, the Author addresses himself exclusively to those who are believers in both the one and the other. With respect indeed to a disbelief in the basis of natural religion, he must ever feel assured, as in another place he has expressed himself, that, however easy it may be to account for the external profession of a disbelief in God, the supposition of the existence of intellectual atheism involves an intellectual absurdity. With respect to the truth of Revelation, although the subject of this Treatise is not directly connected with that question, he would still wish to consider himself as addressing those only who with himself believe that the objects which surround us in our present state of existence, and which are so obviously intended to advance the general powers and faculties of Man, without advancing the powers and faculties, of any other animal, are purposely destined to produce an ulterior and higher effect; the nature of which effect is to be learnt from the doctrines of Revelation alone. And he has thought it right to say thus much on the general subject of religion, not merely for the purpose of recording his own sentiments; but that, in professing to address those only who believe in revealed as well as in natural religion, if on any occasion he should assume the truth of Revelation, he may not be with justice accused of taking that for granted, of which the reader doubts. |