Man
would thus learn that the limbs of his body were not the only limbs
that he could command. His body was already the most versatile in
existence, but he could render it more versatile still. With the
improvement in his body his mind improved also. He learnt to
perceive the moral government under which he held the feudal tenure
of his life--perceiving it he symbolised it, and to this day our
poets and prophets still strive to symbolise it more and more
completely.
The mind grew because the body grew--more things were perceived--more
things were handled, and being handled became familiar. But this
came about chiefly because there was a hand to handle with; without
the hand there would be no handling; and no method of holding and
examining is comparable to the human hand. The tail of an opossum is
a prehensile thing, but it is too far from his eyes--the elephant's
trunk is better, and it is probably to their trunks that the
elephants owe their sagacity. It is here that the bee in spite of
her wings has failed. She has a high civilisation but it is one
whose equilibrium appears to have been already attained; the
appearance is a false one, for the bee changes, though more slowly
than man can watch her; but the reason of the very gradual nature of
the change is chiefly because the physical organisation of the insect
changes, but slowly also.
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