184? STUDY OF NATURAL HISTORY. 



it of absolute affinity, they should be classed to 

 gether : both would then be ferocious, and would 

 possess that particular structure peculiar to car- 

 nivorous quadrupeds. This, therefore, is an instance 

 of analogy. Let us now look to one of affinity. 

 The lion and the tiger, although by no means so 

 alike in their external aspect as the last, are yet 

 known by every one to be closely allied. They re- 

 semble each other, not only in their manners and 

 external organisation ; but both possess that peculiar 

 conformation of teeth, claws, and of internal struc- 

 ture, suited to their carnivorous nature. Their dif- 

 ference is almost confined to their external aspect; 

 whereas, in the former case, the external aspect 

 constitutes the only point of resemblance. While 

 speaking of the tiger, we may mention another in- 

 stance of analogy equally striking. Nature seems 

 to delight in showing us glimpses of that beautiful 

 and consistent plan upon which she has worked, by 

 giving us a few instances of symbolical or analogical 

 representations, so striking and unaswerable in 

 themselves, that they are perceived and acknow 

 ledged by all. What, for instance, can be more 

 perfect than the analogy between the Bengal tiger 

 and the African zebra ? both of them striped in so 

 peculiar a manner as to be unlike all other quadru- 

 peds, and both so perfectly wild and untameable as 

 to have resisted every effort employed for their do- 

 mestication. No one, however, would proceed, 

 upon such grounds alone, to class them together : 

 for the one has the habits of a horse, and feeds upon 

 herbs ; while the other, like the lion, devours flesh. 

 The preponderance of characters, in short, denotes 



