ENVIH05TS OF BATH. 297 



represent each dominant nation, and the power which is destined to 

 succeed it; one group of creatures being wholly developed and supreme, 

 but afterwards degraded and dwindling away, while some of those which were 

 in subjection represent another group, which in their turn are developed and 

 predominant. There are properly no degrees of perfection in the range 

 of creatures; the development of each kind and that of each class is by 

 a divergence, and they are not only brought on one level by having a 

 common origin and a common incipient structure, but the peculiar per- 

 fection of each species or class is degraded in the species or class which 

 is immediately superior to the former. This plan is continued throughout 

 the range, the development in every division being by divergence, and the 

 elaborate structure and beauty of the lower classes being more and more 

 obliterated in the successively higher classes up to man. Thus the higher 

 creature not only passes through a transitory state, which is permanent 

 in the lower creature, but combines in itself the structures of all the crea- 

 tures below it, and in man, as the highest, all created life is concentrated, 

 and in him all other visible creatures are degraded or brought back from 

 their several divergences. 



The interest in the knowledge of all kinds of creatures may be much 

 increased by the fact of their all being manifestations and progressive 

 means of the one spirit, and that each kind has its perfection, which 

 character diminishes more and more in other creatures in proportion as 

 their structure is more remote from that of the above kind. This 

 change in the structure of a creature is attended with a proportionate 

 change in its impulses, habits, circumstances, and its consequent use in 

 creation, thus proving that the variation of the spirit, whether -its man- 

 ifestation be defined as reason or as instinct, or described by some other 

 name, is wholly dependent on organization. 



THE ENVIEONS OE BATH. 



BY T. FULLER, ESQ. 

 (Continued from page 224.) 



If any readers of "The Naturalist" have favoured me with their 

 company thus far, they will have seen that there is no pretension to 

 give any topographical account of the Environs of Bath. The only pur- 

 port of these crude remarks being that of noting down such features in 

 Natural History as might occur in various rambles, and appear to an 

 admirer of nature, like myself, worthy of communication. 



The swallows appear now to have all arrived, and are busily and 

 usefully employed throughout the long days. The swifts are very numerous, 



