566 Natural Theology. No. IX.-Mechanical Arrangement of the Body.

lengths of the fingers, he says, "the reason of this mechanism is, that the tops of the fingers may come to an equality." When they lay hold of and grasp circularly any large body, they meet as it were in the circumference of a circle.

Each of the lower extremities comprises the thigh, the leg and the foot, and bears some analogy in the structure and distribution of its parts with the upper extremities.

The thigh, like the arm, has but one bone, which is the longest in the whole body, and the largest and strongest of all the round bones. The articulation of the thigh-bone with the trunk is secured by two strong ligaments; one of these grows out of the articulating cavity, and is inserted directly into the head of the bone: the other passes over the whole joint, embraces the head of the thigh-bone as in a purse, and is inserted into this bone at its neck. This bone serves not only as a fixed point for performing several motions of the trunk, which it sustains like a pillar, but it also affords a base for the leg to carry on its own motions, and is principally concerned in walking, running, &c.

The leg is composed of three bones, two small ones, named the tibia and fibula, and a small one placed at the knee. The tibia, so called from its resemblance to an old musical pipe, is the long triangular bone at the inside of the leg; it runs nearly in a straight line from the thigh-bone to the ankle, supporting the whole weight of the body, and has its upper end spread into a large surface for receiving the lower end of the thigh-bone and forming the knee-joint. This articulation admits flexion and extension, and is secured by very strong ligaments, to compensate for the weakness of its bony structure, arising from the flatness of the articulating surfaces. At the sides of the joint the capsular ligament is peculiarly strong. The contrivance of a ligament within the cavity of the joint, and directly connecting the two bones, is improved upon by a striking adaptation to the necessities of the case. Instead of one, there are two ligaments that cross each other, and, by a varied tension of each in different positions of the joint, they check its motions and secure its safety. Moreover, on the top of the tibia are placed two moveable cartilages, of a crescent-like form.

Their outward edges are thick, while their inward borders are extremely thin, and they thus form a hollow in which the protuberances of the thighbone play with security, and with a facility that is much increased by their loose connexions. The lower end of the tibia is articulated with the foot, and forms the inner ankle. The fibula is a long slender bone placed at the outside of the tibia: its head is connected to that bone by ligaments, but does not reach high enough to enter into the composition of the knee-joint; it lies along-side the tibia, somewhat like a splint, increasing the strength of the leg, and, like the double bone of the fore-arm, also completing its form. This bone descends to the foot, where it forms the external ankle, and is connected to the tibia, along its whole length, by a broad thin ligament.

The knee-pan is a small thick bone, of an oval or rather triangular form. The base of the triangle is turned upwards, to receive the tendons of the great muscles which extend the leg; the pointed part of this triangle is turned downwards, and is tied by a very strong ligament to the upper part of the tibia, just under the knee. The patella or knee-pan is intended as a lever; for by removing the direction of the extensor muscles of the leg farther from the centre of motion, it enables them to act more powerfully in extending the limb: to facilitate its motions, its internal surface is smooth, covered with cartilage, and fitted to the pulley of the thigh-bone, upon which it moves.

The foot, like the hand, is divided into three parts, viz. the tarsus or instep, the metatarsus and the toes. The tarsus or instep is composed of seven bones, firmly bound together by strong ligaments, and forming an arch for supporting the body. The metatarsus is

composed of five bones, which correspond in their general character with 'the metacarpal bones of the hand. The bases of these bones rest upon the tarsus or instep, while their extremities support the toes. When we stand, the fore-ends of these bones and the heel-bone are our only supporters.

Each of the toes, like the fingers, consists of three bones, except the great toe, which has only two bones. In walking, the toes bring the centre of gravity perpendicular to the advanced foot.

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BIBLICAL CRITICISM.

Mr. Severn on the State of the Human
Being after Death.

THE

a re

SIR, Harlow, July 15, 1815. HE state of a human being after death, and the doctrine of surrection, are subjects which cannot fail to interest all thinking people: to help our inquiries, to confirm our faith in things invisible, and to assist our devotions, not merely to defend a system, I have remitted to you these thoughts, and I have endeavoured to follow the light wherever I could see it, whether proceeding from the lamp of the philosopher, or the sun of revelation. I would hint that several things in this paper were suggested by a view, apparently near, of vast eternity, of that universal mortality to which the creatures are subject, and by meditation on the extent of life and being by which we are surrounded, of which we are but atoms, and from which, if we may judge only by what is apparent, we shall soon be separated. The inferences and remarks in this paper, therefore, you may consider as the writer's defensive armour (the best he could get) against the assaults of infidelity, fanaticism and despair. This armour he has beaten into a shape and adapted as well as he could to his own measure at the forge, and with the instruments of the great Apostle of the Gentiles, 1 Cor. xv. In that chapter Paul appears to me to state, 1st, The doctrine of our future existence; 2nd. That this doctrine is a matter of revelation. Srd. That it is confirmed by the resurrection of Jesus Christ. 4th. That it is a resurrection of the individual, not a creation, but a revivification, (pardon the term) a re turn of life and consciousness, constituting the identity of the person, From the 44th verse of this chapter he reasons analogically, "it is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body," yet his reasoning goes to prove that it is the same substance: his words are, σπείρεται σώμα ψυχικόν ἐγείρεται σῶμα πνευματικὸν: ἔσι σῶμα ψυχικὸν, καὶ ἔςι σῶμα πνεύματικόν: "it is sown," " it is raised;" "it is," or "there is a natural body," &c. Now he had said before, ver. 37, "Thou sowest not the body that

shall be, but bare (naked) grain," σπείρεις γυμνὸν κόκκον. The apostle carries this analogy to the doctrine of the resurrection again, ver. 43, “It is sown in dishonour, it is raised in glory." In Luke xxiv. 39, we have an account of Christ's appearance after the resurrection, when to calm the fears of his disciples, he says, “handle me, and see; a spirit (VEUμa) hath not flesh and bones as ye see me have." IIvEvua then was the word chosen by the evangelist to express the term used by the Jews in their vernacular tongue, by which to convey the idea of what we call a ghost. As the word pysche, is rendered heart, heartily, you, mind, and life, as well as soul, according to the list of your correspondent, Mr. Jones, p. 241, and as the term is applied to a beast, as well as a man, I think we may fairly suppose, that the apostle would take it in the most proper as well as common signification, when he was contrasting the state of a human body as laid in the grave, with the state of the same individual when raised in incorruptibility. I need not remind your readers that Paul styles a dead body, psychichon soma; if this term were used in another connexion it would be properly rendered a body animated: here, it certainly means, an organized body made for the purposes of animal life, but deprived of it. Thus a grain of wheat is a body organized for the purposes of vegetable life, for the preservation of the grain, and its future existence: but every seed hath its own body, that which constitutes the identity, nature and quality. Something within us hints that we shall in due time and under other circumstances, be better without that sort of body we now have, and revelation informs us that we shall be raised "a spiritual body." It appears to me, therefore, that there is something essential to my present nature and future being, which God uns rendered indestructible and immortal; which though it does not de pend upon the usual animal supports for its existence, yet does wholly so upon the powerful and constant providence of God, for the preservation of its identity and consciousness, as

much in our present state as when the
body, the mere changing mass of
matter, which we thus name, has re-
turned to its original dust Now if,
in no proper sense, this indestructible
substance can be deprived of its con-
sciousness, in no sense can it be the
subject of a restoration to the con
scious existence of a rational nature;
for in that case the resurrection of the
body is no more a restoration of the
life and being of the man who died,
than the resurrection of a lost and bu-
ried limb after it has long returned
to the dust, and the restoration of it
to the original owner, would be a
restoration of that person's existence;
for he continued to live without it.
The clear idea of the resurrection is,
the restored life and consciousness of
the individual. This, I think, is
plainly the drift of all the apostle's
reasonings on this subject in 1 Cor.
XV. especially vs. 16, 17, 18: "if
the dead rise not, if Christ be not
raised, then they also which have
fallen asleep in Christ, are perished."
Death, the consequence of sin, still.
reigns, your faith is a delusion, but
we are in full possession of existence
which death itself cannot deprive us
of; our identity will be preserved,
though our consciousness may be lost.
It strikes me, that the resurrection of
our Lord only confirmed to our satis-
faction (faith) what God, in the order
of nature, had previously determined;
the apostle indeed in this chapter evi-
dently draws his analogy from the or-
der of nature. A clear view of this
truth was necessary to support the
minds of suffering Christians in such
a world as the present, for taking all
circumstances into the account, "if
in this life only we have hope, we
are of all men most miserable:" and
"if the dead rise not, and Christ is
not risen, our faith is vain." The re-
surrection is not a creation; the per-
sou who died, is raised, and restored
to life, the perfect human being spi-
ritual and immortal; yet we cannot
suppose that the flesh and bones, the
mere animal body, will be raised
no, what is raised is the essence of
the being. The pneumatic, or spiritual
body, I conceive, necessarily exists
in every human creature, as consti-
tuting his essence and preserving his
identity, but its consciousness may
be suspended; this is death: again,
it may be restored; this is renewed

life. A pure element I suppose to be the substance out of which God has formed the TVεvua; and I conceive that this element is light. Under certain circumstances it possesses the pysche; under others, it loses it, always to resume it again; and at the last day it will break up the tombs, if confined in them, and the solid rocks, ascend from the caverns of the deep, and every atom, once the spirit of life, with renewed consciousness, shall rise to its native heaven. It is plain that the words Tea and

ux, are both used in our transla tion of the scriptures, in what is commonly understood to be different significations; the life, the spirit, the soul, the mind, the person; but in this chapter, 1 Cor. xv., each certainly in a definite sense. The psychean body then will be, the organized body in the present state, fitted for a sensient being, yet constantly subject to change; the pneumatic body, that which is the essential existence, the identification of the person, not to be destroyed by circumstances, the breath of God, the essential flame of life, which cannot be exact of him who first kindled it. The tinguished except by an immediate commmunication of this breath of God to Adam, was the consummatory creative act, without which the body would have remained a piece of inanimate matter; this metaphorical breath certainly was no part of the substance, like the rest of man's naessence of the Deity, but a created ture. The TV or spirit, including the x or soul, reason in the human being, instinct in the brute, directed, governed or destroyed by the great Soul of the Universe, is, I think, superior to all lower agency; is the powerful executive of nature and of God. This wonderful substance universally present, and ever in action, constitutes the forms and essential being of all existing worlds and of all rational creatures. It was the opinion of the ancients that the soul was a subtle æther,-light; the Platonics and Pythagoras taught, that fire,-light, was the natural agent or animal spirit actuating the universe and the human being; Plato supposed something like a ramification of fire,— light, by its rays darting to the extremity of the human frame. Hippo

Mr. Severn on the State of the Human Being after Death.