The part we mention, which, to follow the common definition that is given of it, is that part on which Man sits, is, of itself, extremely deserving of our esteem. It is, in the first place, a characteristic part and appendage of Mankind: it is formed by the expansion of muscles which, as Anatomists inform us, exist in no other animal, and are intirely proper to the human species. Nor does that part confer upon Man a distinction from animals, that is of an honorific kind merely, like the faculty of walking in an erect situation, which, as Ovid remarks, enables him to behold the Sun or the Stars, as he goes forward: but, by allowing him to sit, it enables him to calculate the motions, whether real or apparent, of those same Stars, to ascertain their revolutions, and foreknow their periodical returns. It puts him in a condition to promote the liberal Arts and Sciences, Music, Painting, Algebra, Geometry, &c. not to mention the whole tribe of mechanic Arts and manufactures. It even is, by that power of _assiduity_ (or of being _seated_) it confers upon Man, so useful to the study of the Law, that it has been looked upon as being no less conducive to it than the head itself, with which it has, in that respect, been expressly put upon a par; and it is a common saying in the Universities abroad, that, in order to succeed in that study, a Man must have an _iron head_, and _leaden posteriors_; to which they add, a _golden purse_, to buy books with:--_caput ferreum, aurea crumena, nates plumbeæ_. Nor does the part of the human body we mention, only serve to make Man a learned and industrious animal; but it moreover contributes much to the beauty of the species, being itself capable of a great degree of beauty.