FOOTNOTES:
[a] Mr. Ray in his Wisdom of God manifested in the Works of Creation, Part 2. and Dr. Cockburn’s Essays on Faith, Part 1. Essay 5.
[] Ad hanc providentiam Naturæ tam diligentera [of which he had been before speaking] tamque solertem adjungi multa possunt, è quibus intelligatur, quantæ res hominibus à Deo, quamque eximiæ tributæ sunt: qui primùm eos humo excitaros, celsos & erectos constituit, ut Deorum cognitionem, cœlum intuentes, capere possunt. Sunt enim è terra homines non ut incolæ, atque habitatores, sed quasi spectatores superarum rerum, atque cœlestium, quarum spectaculum ad nullum aliud genus animantium pertinet. Cic. de Nat. Deor. L. 2. c. 56.
[c] Ut autem sapientissimum animalium est Homo, sic & Manus sunt organa sapienti animali convenientia. Non enim quia Manus habuit, propterea est sapientissimum, ut Anaxagoras dicebat; sed quia sapientissimum erat, propter hoc Manus habuit, ut rectissimè censuit Aristoteles. Non enim Manus ipse hominem artes docuerunt, sed Ratio. Manus autem ipsa sunt artium organa, &c. Galen. de Us. Part. L. 1. c. 3. After which, in the rest of this first Book, and part of the second, he considers the Particulars of the Hand, in order to enquire, as he saith, ch. 5. Num eam omnino Constitutionem habeas [manus] quâ meliorem aliam habere non potuit.
Of this Part, (and indeed of the other Parts of human Bodies) he gives so good an Account, that I confess I could not but admire the Skill of that ingenious and famed Heathen. For an Example, (because it is a little out of the Way,) I shall pitch upon his Account of the different Length of the Fingers, L. 1. 2. 24. The Reason of this Mechanism, he saith, is, That the Tops of the Fingers may come to an Equality, cùm magnas aliquas moles in circuitu comprehendunt, & cùm in seipsis humidum vel parvum corpus continere conantur.——Apparent verò in unam circuli circumferentiam convenire Digiti quinque in actionibus hujusmodi maximè quando exquisitè sphæricum corpus comprehendunt. And this Evenness of the Fingers Ends, in grasping sphærical, and other round Bodies, he truly enough saith, makes the Hold the firmer. And it seems a noble and pious Design he had in so strictly surveying the Parts of Man’s Body, which take in his own translated Words, Cùm multa namque esset apud veteres, tam Medicos, quàm Philosophos de utilitate particularum dissensio (quidam enim corpora nostra nullius gratiâ esse facta existimant, nullâque omnino arte; alii autem & alicujus gratiâ, & artificiosè,——) primum quidem tantæ hujus dissensionis κριτήριον invenire studui: deinde verò & unam aliquam universalem methodum constituere, quâ singularum partium corporis, & eorum quæ illis accidunt utilitatem invenire possemus. Ibid. cap. 8.
Pronaque cum spectant animalia cætera terram,
Os Homini sublime dedit, cœlumque tueri
Jussit, & erectos ad sidera tollere vultus.
Ovid. Metam. L. 1. car. 84.
[e] If any should be so curious, to desire to know how far a Man’s Prospect reacheth, by Means of the Height of his Eye, supposing the Earth was an uninterrupted Globe; the Method is a common Case of right-angled plain Triangles, where two Sides, and an opposite Angle are given: Thus in [Fig. 4.] A H B is the Surface, or a great Circle of the terraqueous Globe; C the Center, H C its Semidiameter, E the Height of the Eye; and foreasmuch as H E is a Tangent, therefore the Angle at H is a right Angle: So that there are given H C 398,386 Miles, or 21034781 English Feet, (according to [Book II. Chap. 2. Note (a)];) C E the same Length with the Height of the Eye, on the Mast of a Ship, or at only a Man’s Height, &c. added to it; and E H C the opposite right Angle. By which three Parts given, it is easy to find all the other Parts of the Triangle. And first, the Angle at C, in order to find the Side H E, the Proportion is, As the Side C E, to the Angle at H; so the Side H C, to the Angle at E, which being substracted out of 90 gr. the Remainder is the Angle at C. And then, As the Angle at E, is to its opposite Side H C, or else as the Angle at H is to its opposite Side C E; so the Angle at C, to its opposite Side E H, the visible Horizon. Or the Labour may be shortned, by adding together the Logarithm of the Sum of the two given Sides, and the Logarithm of their Difference; the half of which two Logarithms, is the Logarithm of the Side requir’d, nearly. For an Example, We will take the two Sides in Yards, by Reason scarce any Table of Logarithms will serve us farther. The Semidiameter of the Earth is 7011594 Yards; the Height of the Eye is two Yards more, the Sum of both Sides, is 14023190.
| Logar. of which Sum is, | 7,1468468 |
| Logar. of two Yards (the Differ.) is, | 0,3010300 |
| Sum of both Logar. | 7,4478768 |
| The half Sum, | 3,7239384 |
is the Logar. of 5296 Yards = three Miles, which is the Length of the Line E H, or Distance the Eye can reach at six Feet Height.
This would be the Distance, on a perfect Globe, did the visual Rays come to the Eye in a strait Line; but by Means of the Refractions of the Atmosphere, distant Objects on the Horizon, appear higher than really they are, and may be seen at a greater Distance, especially on the Sea; which is a Matter of great Use, especially to discover at Sea the Land, Rocks, &c. and it is a great Act of the divine Providence, in the Contrivance and Convenience of the Atmosphere, which by this Means enlargeth the visible Horizon, and is all one, as if the terraqueous Globe was much larger than really it is. As to the Height of the Apparent above the true Level, or how much distant Objects are rais’d by the Refractions, the ingenious and accurate Gentlemen of the French Academy Royal, have given us a Table in their Measure of the Earth, Art. 12.
[f] See [Book VI. Chap. 5. Note (g).]
[g] See [Book IV. Chap. 8. Note (c).]
[h] The Mechanism of the Foot, would appear to be wonderful, if I should descend to a Description of all its Parts; but that would be too long for these Notes; therefore a brief Account, (most of which I owe to the before-commended Mr. Cheselden,) may serve for a Sample: In the first Place, It is necessary the Foot should be concave, to enable us to stand firm, and that the Nerves and Blood-Vessels may be free from Compression when we stand or walk. In order hereunto, the long Flexors of the Toes cross one another at the Bottom of the Foot, in the Form of a St. Andrew’s Cross, to incline the lesser Toes towards the great One, and the great One towards the lesser. The short Flexors are chiefly concern’d in drawing the Toes towards the Heel. The transversalis Pedis draws the Outsides of the Foot towards each other; and by being inserted into one of the sesamoid Bones, of the great Toe, diverts the Power of the abductor Muscle, (falsly so call’d,) and makes it become a Flexor. And lastly, the peronæus Longus runs round the outer Ankle, and obliquely forwards cross the Bottom of the Foot, and at once helps to extend the Tarsus, to constrict the Foot, and to direct the Power of the other Extensors towards the Ball of the great Toe: Hence the Loss of the great Toe, is more than of all the other Toes. See also Mr. Cowper’s Anat. Tab. 28. &c.
[] It is very well worth while to compare here what Borelli saith, de motu Animal. Par. 1. cap. 18. De statione Animal. Prop. 132, &c. To which I refer the Reader, it being too long to recite here.
[k] Borel. ibid. Prop. 142.
CHAP. III.
Of the Figure and Shape of Man’s Body.
The Figure and Shape of Man’s Body, is the most commodious that could possibly be invented for such an Animal; the most agreeable to his Motion, to his Labours, and all his Occasions. For had he been a rational Reptile, he could not have moved from Place to Place fast enough for his Business, nor indeed have done any almost. Had he been a rational Quadrupede, among other Things, he had lost the Benefit of his Hands, those noble Instruments of the most useful Performances of the Body. Had he been made a Bird, besides many other great Incoveniencies, those before-mentioned of his Flying would have been some. In a word, any other Shape of Body, but that which the All-wise Creator hath given Man, would have been as incommodious, as any Posture but that of erect; it would have rendered him more helpless, or have put it in his Power to have been more pernicious, or deprived him of Ten thousand Benefits, or Pleasures, or Conveniences, which his present Figure capacitates him for.
CHAP. IV.
Of the Stature and Size of Man’s Body.
As in the Figure, so in the Stature and Size of Man’s Body, we have another manifest Indication of excellent Design. Not too Pygmean[a], nor too Gigantick[], either of which Sizes would in some particular or other, have been incommodious to Himself, or to his Business, or to the rest of his Fellow-Creatures. Too Pygmean would have rendered him too puny a Lord of the Creation; too impotent and unfit to manage the inferiour Creatures, would have exposed him to the Assaults of the weakest Animals, to the ravening Appetite of voracious Birds, and have put him in the Way, and endangered his being trodden in the Dirt by the larger Animals. He would have been also too weak for his Business, unable to carry Burdens, and in a word, to transact the greater part of his Labours and Concerns.
And on the other hand, had Man’s Body been made too monstrously strong, too enormously Gigantick[c], it would have rendered him a dangerous Tyrant in the World, too strong[d] in some Respects, even for his own Kind, as well as the other Creatures. Locks and Doors might perhaps have been made of sufficient Strength to have barricaded our Houses; and Walls, and Ramparts might perhaps have been made strong enough to have fenced our Cities. But these Things could not have been without a great and inconvenient Expence of Room, Materials, and such Necessaries, as such vast Structures and Uses would have occasioned; more perhaps than the World could have afforded to all Ages and Places. But let us take the Descant of a good Naturalist and Physician on the Case[e]. “Had Man been a Dwarf (said he) he had scarce been a reasonable Creature. For he must then have had a Jolt Head; so there would not have been Body and Blood enough to supply his Brain with Spirits; or he must have had a small Head, answerable to his Body, and so there would not have been Brain enough for his Business—Or had the Species of Mankind been Gigantick, he could not have been so commodiously supplied with Food. For there would not have been Flesh enough of the best edible Beasts, to serve his Turn. And if Beasts had been made answerably bigger, there would not have been Grass enough.” And so he goeth on. And a little after, “There would not have been the same Use and Discovery of his Reason; in that he would have done many Things by mere Strength, for which he is now put to invent innumerable Engines—. Neither could he have used an Horse, nor divers other Creatures. But being of a middle Bulk, he is fitted to manage and use them all. For (saith he) no other cause can be aligned why a Man was not made five or ten Times bigger, but his Relation to the rest of the Universe.” Thus far our curious Author.