If we select any object from the whole extent of animated nature, and contemplate it fully and in all its bearings, we shall certainly come to this conclusion : that there is design in the mechanical construction, benevolence in the endowments of the living properties, and that good on the whole is the result. We shall perce've that the sensibilities of the body have a relation to the qualities of things external, and that delicacy of texture is, therefore, a necessary part of its constitution. Wonderful, and exquisitely constructed, as the mechanical appliances are for the protection of this delicate structure, they are altogether insufficient; and a protection of a very different kind, which shall animate the body to the utmost exertion, is requisite for safety. Pain, whilst it is a necessary contrast to its opposite pleasure, is the great safeguard of the frame. Finally, as to man, we shall be led to infer that the pains and pleasures of mere bodily sense (with yet more benevolent intention) carry us onward, through the developement and improvement of the mind, to higher aspirations.

Such is the course of reasoning which I propose to follow in giving an account of the hand and arm, contrasting them with the corresponding parts of living creatures, through all the divisions of the chain of vertebrated animals.