Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1878-05-24

The Coming man" viii certainly be mar
velous 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 evil
IDENTIFY have not yet seen him-but his progen-
itors, at least may be said to have arrived
II is amusing, indeed, to see how the proph-
esied coming man. AS he is portrayed by
this or that locker into the future, is found to
be endowed with the popular tastes and ac-
complishments. and often even with the idiO-
syncrasics Of the portrayer The balloonist,
for instance is sure that the coming man will
ride the air and scud serene midway betwixt
sea and armament the skeptic doubts not
that when tie man comes. he will be wholly
emancipatcd from tradition and superstition
to the socialist, the coming man will with
angelic composure, divide up his yearly gains
with his neighbor; the Malthusian will have
the coming man cease TO recklessly over-pop-
ulate the globe. Much might be said, too, of
what the coming woman" will do and be.
She has her prophets and prophetesses too.
She will, no doubt, arrive at the perfection
of combined convenience and grace in dress
perhaps she will vote and preside over legis-
lative wranges. and dine as envoy mt royal
tables
Mr. Charles Reade, with wit and iuven-
tion that might be expected from his per-
formances in imaginative literature, has dis
covered new attribute. which he is certain
the coming man and woman will possess.
What is remarkable is. that this attribute,
though suggested by brain which is above
all fanciful, is a severely practical one. He
says that the human phenomenon of the fu-
ture will be an 'ambidexter" or two handed
person. Bringing the whole force of his
bailliant rhetoric TO bear upon his subject,
Mr.. Reade arraigns the distinction between
the right ami left hand as a relic of remote
barbarism. To think, be says, that the left
hand is unlucky, is to subscribe to n heather
mythology. 1t was tradition of the ''iuve-
nile world as he calls what we commonly
know as ancient times The according OF
distinction or skill to the right hand has no
warrant, either in the structure of the organs,
or the human instinct. 1t is wholly n matter
of custom by inheritance. Yet, in long ar
ray of very rich historical learning, he shows
how universal in time and place this custom
has been. We find it in the Bible. Jacob
was ''the son of Rachel's right hand" Jacob
blessed Ephraim with the right hand. Ac-
cording to Moses it was the Lords right hand
that gave the Law. Solomon seated his
mother on his right as a mark of honor.
Homer and the Greek writers. Virgil and the
Latin ones, closely follow the traditional use
and symbolism of the two hands. Dexter
GUS came from the Latln word meaning
right hand. and sinister from that meaning
the left. Even in modern tongues the same
superstition" is fixed deep; the French use
''droit, the English fright" for a moral at
tribute as well as for physical locality; the
French "gauche," or awkward, means also
left" The same significant popularity is to
be found in Spanish and Italian. Always it
is seen that words derived from right are
eulogistic, those from the left uncompli-
mentary and sometimes disgraceful Mr.
Reade unlocks all this store of learning 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 that
Mr.. Reade's own exposition shows mankind
to be too closely welded to ''right-handed-
ness to make the reform rapid or easy one
From APplet0n's Journal FIR May