ITS AGILITY. REFLECTIONS. 57 



agility, and perpetual change of form, which probably 

 arises from a back-bone of balls and sockets, like the 

 serpent tribe. "^ This species of enjoyment/' said she, 

 " is wholly animal ; yet it is adapted to the class of 

 existence to which the gordius belongs. The grada- 

 tions of enjoyment are as regular as the orders of 

 creatures, or the degrees of intellectual capacity. Man 

 is superior to every other inhabitant of this globe : his 

 rational powers enable him to turn his attention on 

 the objects by which he is surrounded ; he can inves- 

 tigate their structure, their habits, and the laws that 

 direct them to pursue their own good ; and he alone 

 can refer the arrangement and government of this 

 beautiful world, with all the creatures that dwell on 

 it, to that Great Source of goodness and intelligence 

 that created it." 



Rachel, with ready recollection, immediately applied 

 those lines of Burns, in confirmation, of her mother's 

 assertion that every creature has its own peculiar 

 happiness. 



The partridge loves the fruitful fells ; 



The plover loves the mountains : 

 The woodcock haunts the lonely dells ; 



The soaring heron the fountains. 

 Thro' lofty groves the ring-dove roves. 



The path of men to shun it ; 

 The hazel-bush o'erhangs the thrush j 



The spreading thorn the linnet. 



