, 1878-05-22
The Coming Man,

The Heeming man will certainly be q
marvellous creature. His prophets are
on every hand, and to one and all the
omens are full of the wonderful things
he will devise and do. He is, to be sure.
long in coming" we evidently have
not seen him-but his progenitors, as
least may be said to have arrived. 1t is
amusing, indeed to see how tho
prophesied "coming man." as he is pol-
trayed by this or that locker into the
future; is found to be endowed with the
peculiar tastes and accomplishments, and
often even with the idiosyncrasies, of
the portrayer. The balloonist 70,
instance, is sure that the coming man
will ride the air and scud serene mid
way betwixt the sea and armament tho
sceptic doubts not that when the man
comes he will be wholly emancipated
from tradition and superstition; to the
socialist, the coming man will, with an
gelic composure, divide up his gains
with his neighbors; the Malthusian will
have the coming man cease to recklesslv
over-populate the globe. Much might
be said too, of what the ''coming wo-
man" will do, and be. She has her
prophets and her prophetesses too.
She will, no doubt, arrive at the perfec
tion of combined convenience and grace
in dress ; perhaps she will vote and pre-
side over legislative wrangles, and dine
as envoy at royal tables.
Mr.. Charles Reade, with wit and
invention that might be expected from
his performances in Imaginative litera-
ture, has discovered a new attribute,
which he thinks it certain the coming
man and woman will possess. What is
remarkable, is that the attribute, though
suggested by brain which is above all
fanciful, is severely practical one. He
says that the human phenomenon of the.
future will be an 'ambidexter," or both
handed person. Bringing the whole
force of his rhetoric to bear upon his
subject, Mr.. Reade arraigns the distinc-
ton between the right and left hand as
relic of remote barbarism. To think,
he says, that the left hand is unlucky, is
to subscribe to heather mythology.
1t was a tradition of the '.iuvenile
world, as he calls what we commonly
know as ancient times. The according
of distinction and superior skill to the
right hand has no warrant either in the
structure of the organs or even in human
instinct 1t is wholly matter Of Gus
tom by inheritance. Yet in long array
of rich historical learning he shows how
universal, in time and place, this custom
has been. We find it in the Bible ia.
was ''the son of Rachaels right hand"
Jacob blessed Ephriam with the right
hand. According to Moses, it was 20
Lords right hand that gave the law.
Solnmon seated his mother on his right
as mark of honor. Homer and the
Greek writers, Virgil and the latin ones,
closely follow the traditional use and
symbolism of the hands. 'Dexterous9,
came from the latin word meaning right
hand, and 'sinister" from that meaning
the left. Even in modern tongres the
same superstition" is fixed deep; the
French use "droit, the English "right,"
for moral attribute as well as for a
physical locality; the French 'gauche"
or awkward, means also 'left" uncompli-
mentary and sometimes disgraceful
Mr.. Reade unlocks all his store of learn
ing to prove that the distinction is
traditional, and not instructive; and he
urges the world to hasten the coming of
the "Both-handed," by beginning now to
teach children to use each hand with
equal skill. There would, no doubt, be
great advantages in this; but we fear
Mr.. Reades own exposition shows man
kind to be closely welded to Fright
handedness" to make the reform rapid
or easy one.-Appleton's Journal