Here now in the Nervous Kind we have manifest Acts of the Creator’s Design and Wisdom, in this so manifest and distinct a Provision for Rational and Irrational Creatures; and that Man was evidently intended to be the one, as the Genus of Quadrupeds was the other.
FOOTNOTES:
[a] Amongst these, I might name the Site of the Nerves proceeding from the Medulla Spinalis, which Dr. Lower takes notice of. In Beasts, whose Spine is above the rest of the Body, the Nerves tend directly downwards; but in Man, it being erect, the Nerves spring out of the Spine, not at Right, but in Oblique Angles downwards, and pass also in the Body the same Way. Ibid. p. 16.
[] In plerisq; Brutis tantùm hâc viâ (i.e. by the Par vagum) & vix omnino per ullos Paris Intercostalis nervos, aditus ad cor aut Appendicem ejus patescit. Verùm in Homine, Nervus Intercostalis, præter officia ejus in imo ventre huic cum cæteris animalibus communia, etiam ante pectoris claustra internuncii specialis loco est, qui Cerebri & Cordis sensa mutua ultra citraque refert. Willis Nervor. descr. & usus, Cap. 26.
[c] Id. ib. Dum hanc utriusque speciei differentiam perpendo, succurrit animo, Bruta esse velut machinas, &c.
[d] That our great Man was not mistaken, there is great Reason to imagine, from what he observed in dissecting a Fool. Besides, the Brain being but small, he saith, Præcipua autem discriminis nota quam inter illius & viri cordati partes advertimus, bæcce erat; nempe quòd prædictus Nervi Intercacostalis Plexus, quem Cerebri & Cordis internuncium & Hominis proprium diximus, in Stulto hoc valde exilis, & minori Nervorum satellitio stipatus fuerit. Ibid.
[e] Id. ib. cap. 29. In quantum Bestiæ prudentiâ carent, & variis diversisque passionibus, &c.
CHAP. VII.
The Conclusion.
And now ’tis Time to pause a while, and reflect upon the whole. And as from the Confederations in the preceding Book, we have especial Reason to be thankful to our infinitely merciful Maker, for his no less kind than wonderful Contrivances of our Body; so we have Reason from this brief View I have taken of this last Tribe of the Creation, to acknowledge and admire the same Creator’s Work and Contrivances in them. For we have here a large Family of Animals, in every particular Respect, curiously contrived and made, for that especial Posture, Place, Food, and Office or Business which they obtain in the World. So that if we consider their own particular Happiness and Good, or Man’s Use and Service; or if we view them throughout, and consider the Parts wherein they agree with Man, or those especially wherein they differ, we shall find all to be so far from being Things fortuitous, undesigned, or any way accidental, that every Thing is done for the best; all wisely contrived, and incomparably fitted up, and every way worthy of the great Creator. And he that will shut his Eyes, and not see God[a] in these his Works, even of the poor Beasts of the Earth, that will not say (as Elihu hath it, Job xxxv. 10, 11.) Where is God my Maker, who teacheth us more than the Beasts of the Earth, and maketh us wiser than the Fowls of the Heaven? Of such an one we may use the Psalmist’s Expression, Psal. xlxix. 12. That he is like the Beasts[] that perish.