Excerpt from On the Adaptation of External Nature to the Physical, Condition of Man, Principally With Reference to the Supply of His, Wants and the Exercise of His Intellectual Faculties In the present instance, indeed, Iam strictly called upon to consider, not the moral, but the physical con dition of man and -to examine how far the state of external nature is adapted to that condition; whether we regard the provisions made for the supply of man's wants, either natural or acquired; or those which are made for the exercise of his intellectual faculties. The following treatise naturally, therefore, divides itself into two parts: in the first of which it is intended to investigate and describe the physical condition of man; in the second, the adaptation of external nature to that condition. But a wide field here opens to our view: for man cannot, under any circumstances, be considered 'as an insulated being; or unconnected with the rest of animated nature. He is indeed but one link in the great chain of animal creation; and not only does the contemplation of his condition lose half its inter est, if separated from the contemplation of the condi tion of other animals but it cannot be satisfactorily investigated without that aid. And, again, animal life itself is but one among many modes Of existence, by which the Creator has manifested his omnipo tence; and which it is necessary to contemplate in connexion with the general phenomena of nature, in order to show the superiority of that province, at the head of which human beings have been placed. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.