570 CONCLUSION. 



Our task is ended ; and yet before bidding adieu to 

 the reader, who has accompanied us through this 

 long journey, let us pause to cast one parting look 

 upon the wondrous spectacle presented to our con- 

 templation. Earth and air and water filled wdth 

 life, in infinite abundance, life in innumerable forms, 

 equally beautiful, and yet so diverse. In reviewing 

 the multitudinous races composing the animal king- 

 dom, it has of course been necessary to describe 

 consecutively the different classes and orders in 

 which they are grouped by naturalists, as though 

 they formed but one extended line, and thus in a 

 somewhat arbitrary manner to assign to each a place 

 in the lengthy procession. To suppose that such 

 is their natural arrangement would, however, be to 

 fall into a very serious error. Although widely 

 separated in our pages, the Tiger-beetle and the 

 Tiger are, in their respective spheres of action, pretty 

 much of equal rank, and w^e are inclined to think 

 that in its own element the Cuttle-fish holds as high 

 a place among the Mollusca as the Lion does among 

 quadrupeds. The " vast chain of being," there- 

 fore, composed of numerous successive links, exists 

 only in the imagination of the poet, and the young 

 naturalist would be grievously misled by the adoption 

 of such an idea. The animal creation may be more 

 properly compared to some vast city, from the gate 

 of which several main thoroughfares diverge, each 

 leading to a different quarter of the town, but all 

 dividing into labyrinths of streets, inhabited by 

 artizans of various occupations, busily labouring for 

 the general welfare. It is only by such a view as 

 this, that we can at all understand the intricate 

 dependencies whereby so many creatures are com- 

 bined in one vast system, carrying out harmoniously 

 the laws imposed upon them by their Great 

 Creator. 



