b CLASSIFICATION. 



Hence, animals which have a resemblance to Man, 

 are not without reason styled perfect in a degree 

 proportioned to that resemblance. 



With these preliminary observations, we enter on 

 our pleasurable task, and proceed to trace the varied 

 forms of animal existence from the first dawn of life 

 to Man himself, who, standing supreme in his mental 

 capacities, rises by his immortal destiny incomparably 

 beyond them all. 



Turning our attention to the great scene before us, 

 " Beast, bird, fish, insect, which no eye can see, no 

 glass can reach," so strange and diversified are their 

 shapes and attributes, that the student naturally 

 inquires. What is an animal ? a question which he 

 will soon find to be much more easily propounded 

 than satisfactorily solved. 



At the first glance of the superficial observer, the 

 distinctions between the animal and vegetable king- 

 doms seem plain and obvious. We all know a cow 

 from a cabbage, a horse from the gi-ass upon which 

 it feeds ; and yet, as we come more closely to scruti- 

 nize forms of life less violently contrasted, doubts 

 and hesitations soon begin to teach us that the dis- 

 crimination is not always so easy, and that at length 

 the differences between the animal and the vegetable 

 creations become almost imperceptible. Light and 

 darlmess seem distinct enough, and no one possessed 

 of eye-sight could be in danger of mistaking noon for 

 night ; but he who gazes on the morning's dawn, and 

 tries to mark the line that separates the parting 

 darkness from the coming day, will find the task by 

 no means an easy one, so gently do the lights and 

 shades tincture and mingle with each other. 



The axiom of Linnaeus is well-known. " Stones 

 grow, vegetables grow and live, animals grow, live, 

 and/eeZ." The capability of feeling, therefore, was 

 regarded by the great Swedish naturalist as the 

 distinctive character of an animal ; but how can we 

 define where feeling has been first bestowed. The 

 sensitive plant which coyly shrinks upon the slightest 



