278 THE NATURAL HISTORY OF 



CLASS— ANIMALIA RADIATA, 



OR 



RADIATED ANIMALS. 



The Creator's glorious works around us 



Are his proofs of kindness, and of love to man : 



Alike evidences of his power and wisdom, 



Each silently persuades us to adore 



That goodness of a God, who hath formed 



Them for us, by whom they were 



Destined for our use, and admiration 



Of a Being, powerful, wonderful and great. 



This forms a class of Radiated Animals. In the three first 

 great divisions of the Animal Kingdom, by the late Baron 

 Cuvier,* the organs of sense and motion are symmetrically 

 arranged on the two sides of an axis. There is a posterior 

 and anterior dissimilar face. In this last division, they are 

 disposed like rays round a centre, and this is the case even 

 where they consist of but two series ; for then the two faces 

 are similar. They approximate to the homogeneity of 

 plants, having no very distinct nervous system or particular 

 organs of sense ; in some of them it is even difficult to dis- 

 cover a vestige of circulation ; their respiratory organs are 

 universally seated upon the surface of the body, the intes- 

 tine in the greater number is a mere sac without issue, and 

 the lowest of the series are nothing but a sort of homogeneous 

 pulp, endowed with motion and sensibility. f 



* Viz. 1. Animalia Vertebrata. 2. Animalia Mollusca. 3. Animalia 

 Articulata. 4. Animalia Radiata. 



t Vide the translation of the Regne Animal, vol. i. p. 24. Now publish- 

 ing by Henderson, of the Old Bailey, London. 



