Man has been thrown naked into the world, feeble, incapable of flying like the bird, running like the stag, or creeping like the serpent; without means of defense, in the midst of terrible enemies armed with claws and stings; without means to brave the inclemency of the seasons, in the midst of animals protected by fleece, by scales, by furs; without shelter, when all others have their den, their hole, their shell; without arms, when all about him are armed against him. And yet he has demanded of the lion his cave for a lodging and the lion retires before his eyes; he has despoiled the bear of his skin, and of it made his first clothing; he has plucked the horn from the bull, and this is his first drinking-cup; then he has dug even into the bowels of the earth, to seek there the instruments of his future strength; from a rib, a sinew, and a reed, he has made arms; and the eagle, who, seeing him at first in his weakness and nakedness, prepares to seize him as his prey, struck in mid-air, falls dead at his feet, only to furnish a feather to adorn his head. Among animals, is there one, who under such conditions could have preserved life? Let us for a moment separate the workman from his work, God from nature. Nature has done all for this insect,--of which they had been discoursing,--nothing for man. It is that man should be the product of intelligence rather than of matter; and God, in granting him this celestial gift, this ray of light from the divine fire, created him feeble and unprotected, that he might make use of it, that he might be constrained to find in himself the elements of his greatness. --_By X. B. Saintine, in Picciola; or, The Prison Flower._ 1207 Wherever a man goes to dwell his character goes with him. 1208 Our acts make or mar us,--we are the children of our own deeds. --_Victor Hugo._ 1209 MAN--ASSUMPTIONS OF. O, but man, proud man! Dress'd in a little brief authority; Most ignorant of what he's most assured. --_Shakespeare._ 1210 I've learned to judge of men by their own deeds, I do not make the accident of birth The standard of their merit. 1211 MAN. What a piece of work is man! How noble in reason! How infinite in faculties! In form and moving how express and admirable! In action how like an angel! In appearance how like a god! The beauty of the world! the paragon of animals! --_Shakespeare._ 1212 Direct not him, whose way himself will choose. 1213 He that can please nobody, is not so much to be pitied as he that nobody can please. --_Colton._ 1214 To quarrel with a drunken man is harming the absent. 1215