[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.
FOOTNOTES:
[a] What is here urged about the Size of Man’s Body, may answer one of Lucretius’s Reasons why Nil ex nihilo gignitur. His Argument is