OURSELVES.

THE human fabric is a rich cabinet, full of subjects for thought and admiration. In it the intelligent artisan may observe specimens, almost numberless, of the most exquisite workmanship. By the vital powers in this living laboratory, the chemist will find his filter and alembic anticipated and excelled. Hither the painter and the sculptor must come, for their finest forms and choicest models. And whilst, in its changeful hues and beautiful movements, the poet catches the graces which he loves to sing, the devout philosopher resorts to it for some of the clearest evidences of the Divine wisdom and skilfulness.

To understand the structure and uses of its different parts, we must take the fabric to pieces; but we shall best obtain a knowledge of its economy, as a whole, if we put the pieces together. Let us attempt this last, first. Let us construct and fit up a living habitation for the accommodation and use of a mind—a thinking, intelligent principle-in which it may reside, and by means of which it may hold easy and familiar intercourse with material beings. In imagination, LET US MAKE A MAN! Let us make him, considering beforehand what would be wanted to fit him for the condition and circumstances in which he is placed. We shall, in this way, plainly see the necessity and advantage, and so the final cause, as it is termed, of most of the parts which are actually found in the human body. As however, human skill and invention would be found very incapable of supplying some of our requirements, we must not be surprised, if we meet with some parts of the human system the use of which we cannot very well make out; and with some

operations and functions which we are unable to explain. The whole bears the strongest characters of excelling wisdom and ingenuity; but the limited senses and capacity of man, cannot pretend to reach every part of a machine which nothing less than the intelligence and power of the Supreme Being could contrive and execute.

1. The mind must be provided with a place of immediate residence; which should have all the requisites for the union and intercourse of spirit and body. Accordingly, it is lodged in the Brain, a sensitive yet material organ, where it dwells as governor or superintendant over the whole fabric.

2. Correspondence is to be held with other material beings. There must, therefore, be organs fitted to receive those impressions which surrounding objects are capable of making. These are the uses of the organs of sense: the eye is adapted for light; the ear for sound, &c. &c.

3. There must be some means of communication between these organs of sense and the brain, by which they may give information of the various impressions made upon them, and by which those commands from the mind may be transmitted over the whole frame which are necessary for its well-being. These duties are discharged by the Nerves; they are tender and delicate cords, which arise, directly or indirectly, from the brain, and are distributed throughout the whole body. Like the wires of an electric telegraph, they communicate all the different sensations to the brain, and carry its orders to the various and distant functionaries. They are monitors against such impressions as might endanger the safety of the whole or any particular part of the body, and so preserve it from being subjected, unwarily, to those many destructive and dangerous occurrences, to which it must otherwise be exposed from a thousand incidents in life.

4. Power must be given to move from place to place;

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to pursue such objects as are pleasant and useful, and to avoid such as are disagreeable, or might be hurtful. Therefore the Limbs are provided, consisting of Muscles and Tendons: these are the instruments of motion; they are likewise found in every part of the body where motion is required.

5. Form, and firmness, and support, are necessary; to keep the softer parts in their allotted places; to give fixed points for, and proper direction to, the various movements; to protect the tender and more delicate organs from injury ; and to preserve the whole from being a shapeless mass: for these purposes the Bones are provided.

6. If the solid framework consisted of only one piece, motion would be prohibited; there must, therefore, be a number of Bones. To prevent their separation and dislocation, these are tied together by elastic bands called Ligaments, which admit, without hindrance, of free and sufficient movement. The ends of the bony pieces, where they move and rub upon one another, would fret and wear, but that they are tipped with smooth and slippery Cartilages, and lubricated with the Mucus of the Joints.

7. The interstices, the vacant places, between the various parts, must be filled up with some soft and ductile material, to pack, unite, keep separate, and yet allow them sufficient motion: this is done by the Cellular Membrane and Adipose or Fatty Substance.

8. The whole apparatus must be covered up, to give it compactness, and to defend it from injury. These are the uses of the Skin and other Integuments; which likewise serve as a field for the distribution of those nerves which form, in their aggregate, the Organ of Touch.

9. As man is made for society and intercourse with beings of his own and other kinds, he must be endowed

with powers of expressing and communicating his thoughts and wishes by some sensible marks or signs, which shall be easy in their use, and admit of sufficient variety. He is therefore gifted with the Faculty of Speech, by which he can throw out signs with wonderful facility, and vary them almost without end.

10. As it is the nature of matter to be altered and worked upon by matter, so a living being would be destroyed if due provision was not made for repairing the injuries which it commits upon itself, and those to which it is exposed from without. But a rich treasury of Blood is provided, stored up in the Heart and Blood-vessels, full of nutritious and healing particles, sufficiently fluid to penetrate into the minutest parts of the frame; impelled by the Heart and conveyed by the Arteries, it washes every part, builds up what was broken down, and clears away any old, and now useless materials. What more there is of this blood than is required for immediate use, for repairing damage and so forth, must not be lost, but must be returned again to the heart; this is the duty of the Veins: thus, the Circulation of the blood is required and its uses explained.

11. The old materials which had become useless, and therefore swept away by the current of the blood, are to be separated and thrown out of the system: to accomplish this purpose, an apparatus of Glands, the organs of Excretion, is given, for straining and clearing away whatever is redundant, vapid, or noxious from the general mass.

12. From its very nature, the fabric must be constantly wearing; reparation therefore must continually go on the store of blood would soon be exhausted, and the building break down, if provision was not made for obtaining new supplies. These supplies are profusely scattered around us in the animal and vegetable kingdoms; and Hands are pro

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vided, the finest instruments that could by any possibility have been contrived, for gathering and preparing them, in a variety of ways, for the mouth.

13. These supplies which we call Food, must be considerably changed before they are suitable for their ultimate purposes in the system; they must be converted into blood. The food is therefore cut and bruised by the teeth; dissolved and melted down by the stomach, and other organs subservient to Digestion.

14. As the finer parts of the aliments only are useful in the body, these require to be taken up and conveyed into the blood, and the dregs removed. With this view the intestinal canal is given; wherein the nutritious part called Chyle, is separated by a set of vessels called Lacteals, or absorbents, from the grosser parts, to be forwarded into the blood; while the fæces pass on into proper receptacles, whence they are duly detruded from the system.

15. The frame is now rendered fit for occupying almost every part of our earth; except, that as yet, it has no means of preserving the Equality of its Temperature: but by the functions of breathing, performed by the lungs and their subordinate apparatus, and by evaporation from the skin, the body is warmed in the colder, and cooled in the hotter regions of the globe.

Thus, we have accumulated not only what is wanted for the immediate use of the fabric, but have also provided it with the means of prolonging its existence. Its duration, we may presume, must be limited; for, as it is nourished, grows, and is raised up to its full strength and maturity, so it must in time, in common with all material beings, decay and go on to ruin. Hence, appears the necessity of a scheme for renovation. Accordingly, a wise Providence, to perpetuate as well as as to preserve His work, besides implanting