And as the Bones are admirably adapted to prop; so all the Parts of the Body are as incomparably plac’d to poise it. Not one Side too heavy for the other; but all in nice Æquipoise: The Shoulders, Arms, and Side æquilibrated on one Part; on the other Part the Viscera of the Belly counterpois’d with the Weight of the scapular Part, and that useful Cushion of Flesh behind.
And lastly, To all this we may add the wonderful Concurrence, and Ministry of the prodigious Number and Variety of Muscles, plac’d throughout the Body for this Service; that they should so readily answer to every Posture; and comply with every Motion thereof, without any previous Thought or Reflex act, so that (as the excellent Borelli[k] saith), “It is worthy of Admiration, that in so great a Variety of Motions, as running, leaping, and dancing, Nature’s Laws of Æquilibration should always be observed; and when neglected, or wilfully transgressed, that the Body must necessarily and immediately tumble down.”
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