prejudice, of habit, and of ignorance; not
of nature. It is true, doctors sometimes
tell us that the position of the heart on
the left side of the body renders it
desirable that we should not use the left
hand so frequently and so constantly as
the right, lest we should, somehow or
other, damage, or weary, or interfere with
the action of that most important organ.
This is a statement which I, for one,
should feel more inclined to believe, if the
same reasoning were applied to the left
leg.  But the doctors do not go this
length; and, with all deference to their
superior knowledge of anatomy and
physiology, I am unconvinced and incredulous
on this subject, and hold that the left hand
is the innocent victim of an unfounded
delusion.

The name, in England, of this neglected
member of the human form divine is
highly suggestive of the wrong committed
against it. It is called the "left " because
it is left out of the proper course of work
and business; left out of consideration;
left to neglect, and even to scorn.  The
Romans called it sinister, the French call
it gauche, and the Germans links; none of
which words convey the English meaning
of abandonment.  But, on the principle,
too often and too commonly at work in
the world, of giving a dog a bad name and
then hanging him, the word sinister,
applied to the poor left hand, has come to
signify any course of proceeding that is
dark, wicked, or malignant.  A man with
a "sinister " expression of countenance, is
held to be the reverse of amiable or
agreeable; a "sinister " report, or rumour, is one
that is laden with evil.  To do a thing "over
the left" means not to do it; a "left-
handed" compliment is an insult in
disguise; and a "left-handed marriage" is
either no marriage at all, or a marriage
which the lord of creation who
contracts it, is much too high and mighty to
avow. The "bar-sinister" in heraldry
signifies illegitimacy; and "left" being in
one sense the opposite of " right," has been
held, with the grossest injustice, to be that
other opposite of right which is designated
as "wrong."

All faculties of mind and body suffer
impairment and diminution from disuse.
No man or woman in civilised society can
turn his, or her, ears backwards and
forwards to catch a sound in either direction,
as all wild animals can do who live in a
state of constant alarm or danger from
enemies. The savage Aborigines of the
American continent, and other wild tribes
in every part of the world, where men
are compelled to rely upon their own
vigilance and strength for protection against
opponents, possess this faculty, while their
European and other compeers, accustomed
to rely upon the law and upon the police
for their security against aggression, have
completely lost it.  In like manner the blind,
who are deprived of the most precious of
all the faculties, are endowed with a more
exquisite sensibility of touch and hearing,
than people who can see, simply because
they are driven by painful necessity to
cultivate and make the most of such faculties
as remain to them.  One who is
wholly deprived of his right hand, learns
to use the left, and to apply it to every
purpose of dexterity or skill, until he
makes it as efficient as its fellow. Children,
when they first begin to take notice
of the world in which they live, so
commonly use both hands alike, that they have
to be corrected by their parents and nurses
and to be taught systematically to give the
right hand the preference in conveying the
food to their mouths, and never to let the
left hand do that which it is the custom
of society to perform with the right.  We
are told in the Book of Judges, that during
the fearful civil war between Israel and
the tribe of Benjamin, there were seven
hundred chosen men of the latter who
were left-handed, and that every one of
these warriors could "sling stones at an
hair's breadth, and not miss."  Thus each
man was worth two in battle, because he
had been trained to make his left hand
equal to his right.  If seven hundred men
could have been thus educated, why not
seven thousand, or seven hundred
thousand, or the whole human race? There
is no reason against it, but habit,
prejudice, and fashion.  As to the doctor's
reason, apropos of the heart, I shall take
the liberty of considering it unfounded
until it shall be satisfactorily proved in
the case of any left-handed man or woman,
that the action of his or her heart has
been injuriously affected by his or her
ambidexterity.

Of course all argument is vain on this
subject.  The old cannot learn and the
young will not learn.  Besides, it may be
replied that, all things considered, the world
gets on very well as it is, although it only
uses one half of the manual skill with which
nature has endowed the lordly race that
has subdued and replenished it. True;
and a truism.  Yet did not the world get