Xll INTRODUCTION. 



quently referred to considerations of this kind. I 

 have endeavoured to show how well adapted is the 

 science of living creation to elevate the mind, at the 

 same time that it brings back our thoughts towards 

 Him who has created all things. I will not, there- 

 fore, here revert to this subject; but there is still 

 another useful consequence to be deduced from 

 zoological studies, to which I would now draw 

 attention. 



The number of animals known to us at the present 

 day may be counted by hundreds of thousands, and 

 the most retentive memory would be unable to grasp 

 even the mere names of all the species. To guide 

 us through this labyrinth, zoologists have devised 

 systematic methods of classification which are based 

 upon the very nature of the animals themselves. 

 The animal kingdom has been distributed over a 

 sort of framework, whose divisions correspond with 

 so many groups of facts and ideas which rise gra- 

 dually from isolated details to the most extended 

 generalisations. It is impossible to occupy oneself 

 assiduously with studies of this kind without becoming 

 in some degree imbued with their spirit. If it is 

 useful to learn from mathematics how to reason in a 

 logical manner on purely abstract questions, and if it 

 is useful to acquire by means of physics and chemistry 

 a spirit of experimenting, would it not be still more 

 interesting to the minds of youth if they were taught 

 to observe, to classify, and to co-ordinate masses of 



