104 UNITY OF SYSTEM. 



that the Creepers, although they seldom use their wings, if those members 

 (the wings) suffer damage, will not adhere to the body of a tree if placed 

 upon it, although when so young as to be unable to fly, they constantly 

 leave the nest, and crawl all over the body and limbs of the tree in its 

 neighbourhood. 



There is yet one other class of birds which I shall advert to, and this 

 is the Auks and Penguins, which can scarcely be said to have any powers 

 of locomotion whatsoever. If it were not for the conviction which every 

 man who is a believer in the Omnipotent Wisdom of the Creator must 

 possess of the admirable fitness of every class of beings, for their appointed 

 mode of life, these creatures must become objects of our pity, so helpless 

 do they appear; but the truth is, they are only fitted for one element, 

 although perfectly so as to be birds to all intents and purposes; they can 

 neither move on the land, nor traverse the regions of air, for they have 

 mere rudiments of wings, and their legs being extremely short, and placed 

 quite close to the tail, causing them to sit up in an erect position; this 

 total helplessness can however only be applied to the Great Auk and one 

 other bird, the Dabchick or Little Grebe, which however can, like the 

 ear-wig, make a shift to fly, under extreme circumstances, and which is 

 very well known to frequent almost every piece of water of any extent. 

 The other Auks can manage to fly a little, and something in the manner 

 of the Coot and Moorhen. There is one kind indeed, the Shearwater, 

 which flies very well, and also runs as well as any of the Gulls; but the 

 others, including the Puffins, are miserable hands at terrestrial movement. 



(To be continued.) 



ON UNITY OF SYSTEM. 



{Continued from page 77.) 



The life of every natural creature proceeds from and returns to one 

 source, the individuality being only temporary, except in man, who is 

 responsible. The spirit of life thus being never separate from its source 

 and consequently never partial or imperfect, but only apparently modified 

 by the agent which it developes, may be supposed to represent in each 

 creature the law which governs the whole visible world, and, accordingly, 

 that every kind of creature is expressive of the system of all the earth, and 

 that this expression or image is not more complete or perfect in one kind 

 than in another, but that each kind has its peculiar perfection, and that 

 what is developed in one class of creatures is degraded in another, what is 

 hidden in one is manifest in another. This system appears also in com- 

 binations as well as in individual creatures; each region in some degree 

 represents the whole earth; the chronological epochs are the counterparts 



