TIIE BODY.
After having considered the rise and progress of anatomy ; the various disco. veries that have been made in it from time to dine ; the great number of dili gent observers who have applied them selves to this art; and the importance of the study, not only fur the prevention and cure of diseases, but in furnishing the liveliest proofs of divine wiadom ; the following questions seem naturally to arise. For wted purpose is there such a variety of parts in the human body ? 'Why such complication of nice and tender. machinery ? Why was there not rather a more simple, less dclicate, and less ex pensive frame ? That beginners in the study of anatomy mat. acquire a satisfactory-, general, idea of these subjects, we shall furnish them with clear answers to all such questions. Let us then, in onr imagination, make a man : in other words, let us suppose that the mind, or inimaterial part, is to be pla ced in a corporeal fabric, to hold a corres. pondence tvith other material beings, by the intervention of' the body- ; and then consider, a priori, what will he wanted for her accommodation. In this inquiry we shall plainly see the aecessity, or advan tage, and therefbre the final cause, of most of the parts, which we actually find in ihe human body. And if we consider, that, in order to answer some ofthe requi sites, human art and. invention would. be very insufficient, 1.ve need not be surpris ed if we meet with some parts of th e ,body, tile use of which we cannot yet make out ; anti %kith same operations or functions which we cannot explain. We can see and comprehend that the whole bears the strongest marks of excelling wisdom and ingenuity ; but the imperfect senses and capacity of man cannot pretend to reach every part ofa machine, which nothingless than the intelligence and power of the Su preme Being could contrive aud execute.
"Fo proceed th.en ; in the first place, the mind, the thinking 'unmaterial agent, must be provided with a place of imme diate residence, which shall have all the requisites for the union of spirit and body; accordingly, she is pro% ided with the brain, tvliere she dwells as governor and superintendant oldie whole fabric.
In the second place, as she is to hokl a correspondence with all the material be.
%vhich surround her, she must be sup plied with organs fitted to receive the dd. ferent kinds of impreions that they will make. In fact, therefore, we see that she is provided with the organs of sense, as we call them ; the eye is adapted to light, the ear to sound, the nose to smell, the mouth to taste, und the skin to touch.
In the third place, she must be provi. ded with organs of' conmninication be tween herself, in the brain. and those or gans of sense, to give her inhumation of all the impressions that are made upon them : and she must have organs between her self; in the brain, and every other part of the body, fitted to convey her coinntands and influence over the whole. • For these purposes the nerves are actually g,iven.
They are chords, which tise from the brain, the immediate residence of the mind, and disperse themselves in branches through all parts of the body. They are intended to be occasional monitors agai»st all such impressions as might endanger the well-being of the whole, or of any parti cular part, which vindicates the Creator of all things in having actually subjeeted us to thosc many disagreeable and pain ful sensations, which we are exposed to from a thousand accidents in life.
'• Further, the mind, in this corporeal system, must be endued with the power tnoving from place to place, that she may have intercourse with a variety of objects ; that she may from such as are disagreeable, dangerous, or hurtful, and pursue such as are pleasant or use ful to her. And accordingly she is fur nished with limbs, and with muscles :Ind tendons, the instruments of motion, which are found in every part of the fabric where motion is necessary.