TIIE SHORES OF BRITAIN. 101 



horn-like processes of the head, are very long. Thus 

 we perceive, and there are many other examples 

 which might be adduced, that it has pleased God 

 to vary the forms of created beings, not by making 

 each on a separate and independent plan, but by 

 creating certain forms, which are viewed as types or 

 models, and varying the parts, common to many spe- 

 cies, in detail. The one mode would have been as 

 easy as the other ; there can be no gradations of faci- 

 lity in creation to Omnipotence; but doubtless He 

 had wise ends in view in thus proceeding, though we 

 may fail, from ignorance, in discerning them. Pro- 

 bably one reason may have been the formation of 

 one harmonious whole out of the multitude of living 

 creatures, which could not have been formed had 

 every one been essentially different from all others. 

 But, as it is, we see that deviations in structure and 

 form are gradual, that one species varies but little 

 from a certain type, another varies a little more, and 

 so on ; thus connecting each with each in a most 

 beautiful order, something like the manner in which 

 the links of a chain hang from each other, or perhaps 

 still more, like an immense number of circles, so 

 arranged as to touch other circles in many parts of 

 their circumference. Goldsmith flippantly asserts, 

 that the Shrimp and the Prawn " seem to be the 

 first attempts which Nature made when she medi- 

 tated the formation of the Lobster." Such expres- 

 sions as these, however, are no less unphilosophical 

 than they are derogatory to God's honour ; these 

 amimals being in an equal degree perfect in their 



kind, equally formed by consummate wisdom, inca- 



i2 



