s himself in his den. Man builds his habitation, and
weaves his clothing. With horns, or teeth, or claws, the strong and
deadly weapons with which nature has furnished them, the animal kinds
wage their war; he forges swords and spears, and constructs implements
of destruction that will send death almost as far as his eye can mark
his foe, and sweep down thousands together. The animal that goes in
quest of his food, that pursues or flies from his enemy, has feet, or
wings, or fins; but man bids the horse, the camel, the elephant, bear
him, and yokes them to his chariot. If the strong animal would cross the
river, he swims. Man spans it with a bridge. But the most powerful of
them all stands on the beach and gazes on the ocean. Man constructs a
ship, and encircles the globe. Other creatures must traverse the element
nature has assigned, with means she has furnished. He chooses his
element, and makes his means. Can the fish traverse the waters? So can
he. Can the bird fly the air? So can he. Can the camel speed over the
desert? He shall bear man as his rider.

"That's beautifu'!" "Tuts, haud your tongue, and tak a chow. There's
some shag." "Is he gaun to be lang, Hamish?" "Wheesht! you micht as weel
be speakin in the kirk."

But to see what he owes to inventive art, we should compare man, not
with inferior creatures, but with himself, looking over the face of
human society, as history or observation shows it. We shall find him
almost sharing the life of brutes, or removed from them by innumerable
differences, and incalculable degrees. In one place we see him
harbouring in caves, naked, living, we might almost say, on prey,
seeking from chance his wretched sustenance, food which he eats just as
he finds it. He lives like a beggar on the alms of nature. Turn to
another land, and you see the face of the earth covered with the works
of his hand--his habitation, widespreading stately cities--his clothing
and the ornaments of his person culled and fashioned from the three
kingdoms of nature. For his food the face of the earth bears him
tribute; and the seasons and changes of heaven concur with his own art
in ministering to his board. This is the difference which man has made
in his own condition by the use of his intellectual powers, awakened and
goaded on by the necessities of his physical constitution.

The various knowledge, the endlessly multiplied observation, the
experience and reasonings of man added to man, of generati