nose; and
so of the rest. In like manner, when I speak of man generally, I do not
regard any aberrations of form, obesity, a thick calf, a thin calf; I
take the middle between all extremes; and this is emphatically man.

Man cannot keep pace with a starting horse: but he can persevere, and
beats him in the end.

What an infinite variety of works is man by his corporeal form enabled
to accomplish! In this respect he casts the whole creation behind him.

What a machine is the human hand! When we analyse its parts and its
uses, it appears to be the most consummate of our members. And yet there
are other parts, that may maintain no mean rivalship against it.

What a sublimity is to be attributed to his upright form! He is not
fashioned, veluti pecora, quae natura prona atque ventri obedientia
finxit. He is made coeli convexa tueri. The looks that are given him in
his original structure, are "looks commercing with the skies."

How surpassingly beautiful are the features of his countenance; the
eyes, the nose, the mouth! How noble do they appear in a state of
repose! With what never-ending variety and emphasis do they express the
emotions of his mind! In the visage of man, uncorrupted and undebased,
we read the frankness and ingenuousness of his soul, the clearness
of his reflections, the penetration of his spirit. What a volume of
understanding is unrolled in his broad, expanded, lofty brow! In his
countenance we see expressed at one time sedate confidence and awful
intrepidity, and at another godlike condescension and the most melting
tenderness. Who can behold the human eye, suddenly suffused with
moisture, or gushing with tears unbid, and the quivering lip, without
unspeakable emotion? Shakespear talks of an eye, "whose bend could awe
the world."

What a miraculous thing is the human complexion! We are sent into the
world naked, that all the variations of the blood might be made visible.
However trite, I cannot avoid quoting here the lines of the most
deep-thinking and philosophical of our poets:

We understood
Her by her sight: her pure and eloquent blood
Spoke in her cheeks, and so distinctly wrought,
That one might almost say her body thought.

What a curious phenomenon is that of blushing! It is impossible to
witness this phenomenon without interest and sympathy. It comes at once,
unanticipated by the person in whom we behold it. It comes from the
soul, and expres