1825.]-_ 
- This» may» be \epartlyy illustrated, by, 
the -following» -observations,:--Among 
animated! | beings,» (bats » are); » the,» link 
of ~beasts oafid birds; ».the- numerous 
classitof/dmphibia: conjoin,.beasts and 
fishesi;;:and wlizards, unite,.them with 
reptiles.*: »oThe.-humming -bird,, ap- 
al etd ?, a : 
‘1 * © KS faras méchanism is concerned, 
we: way’ find sévéral illustrations of a regu~ 
larseale of ‘being in the reptile: tribes. 
Thus the erocodile may be. said. to, connect 
the viviparous and oviparous qnadrupeds, 
as\resembling, in external appearance, the 
genus manis,-or scaly lizards; the turtles, 
especially. those with soft coverings, may 
be. considered as uniting the cetacea and 
reptiles ; the flying lizards, or dragons, may 
be said to form the link of connexion be- 
tween ‘reptiles and birds; the  seps and 
chalcis nearly resemble serpents ; and the 
siren is so very near the fishes, that-some 
naturalists. still enumerate it among the 
finny tribes.’’— Brewster's Encyloped., Art. 
Herpetology. 
' [All this is very true, or at least very 
specious, as far as relates to links or shades 
of resemblance, and to approximation, at 
some point or other, between the respec- 
tive classes or orders of existence, so as to 
constitute one consistent and coherent 
whole: but how does this constitute that 
whole a chain? ‘The facts brought for- 
ward in illustration of Pope’s darling hypo- 
thetical metaphor, to which the splendour 
.of his reputation has attracted a degree of 
philosophical (or, rather, anti-philosophi- 
cal) homage, suggest the idea, not of a 
simple series of progressive gradations, but 
a complicated series. of ramifications ; and 
a ramifying chain would be rather an odd 
sort of idea—if, indeed, an idea of such an 
object. could be formed. A ramification of 
chains may indeed be conceived, and gra- 
phically illustrated : but it would not be an 
image of a graduated chain, with one be- 
ginning and one end, by whatever arrange- 
ment it might be shewn to implicate and 
cohere: It would not be an illustration of 
the idea (if here again a complication of 
well-chiming words has not been mistaken 
for an idea) of a series of gradations in 
whieh there was a midway link between 
nothing and infinitude. 
. « Midway from nothing to infinity! ” 
Whyssis. not every. thing equally midway 
between these. two incomprehensible ex- 
tremes-?—a’ mite as much so as aman ?—a 
mole-hil] as a world ?—a grain of sand as a 
ees system? What comparative pro- 
sere be between the smallest 
‘nothing ?—between the greatest 
de? What link so subtile as 
6 adhere to the one?—so mighty as to 
: “the otter? Poetry is never sé 
aan ical as) wherr'it: dabbles’ in-sys= 
tems of philosophy,-—Eprr. ] 
Grasdation of Unwwersal Beings; 
£9- 
proaches the nature of i et ages a d the 
flying fish ‘that of bird Phe Wolypus, 
the , sea; <ciahtidg suit € \sea, pen, 
though of animal origin, have more the 
habits of vegetables than of animals; 
while Venus’s., fly-trap..(dionga,.musot 
pula); the .sensitive..plant, and.some 
other vegetable productions, * by ° “their 
spontaneous movements, or excessive 
sensibility, seem. to, participate more of 
animal origin. Corals: and. corallines, 
from the different forms they assume, 
may be more easily mistaken for mineral 
or vegetable than animal productions, 
to. which: class they are now unani- 
mously referred by naturalists. - The 
truffle, though a vegetable, assumes 
rather the appearance of a mineral; and 
there is reason to believe that the ang- 
malous substance called Peat, is ac- 
tually a live vegetable, sui generis, rather, 
than an earthy or mineral production? 
as has been often supposed. rit 
son’s Recreations, 1—4, 
But the gradation is not confined . 
the outward form, or to peculiarities. of, 
organization —the same concatenation, 
is observable respecting mind,- begins, 
ning with man, who forms the highest, 
link of the chain, and descending from, 
him, by an obvious diminution of men-. 
tal powers, through an innumerable 
series of existences, till it terminates in 
mere animation alone, with an apparent 
privation of all mental —perception.t 
The surly majesty of the lion, with the 
artful cunning of the other feline spe- 
cies, and the faithful sagacity of the 
canine race, to say nothing of the doci- 
lity and instinct of the larger animals, 
surely evince some degree “of approxi- 
mation. to the more noble attributes of 
man. 
+ Animal productions they are, but not 
animal existences, any more than the waxen 
hive of the bee. The coral may be formed;: 
and apparently is so, by exudations or ex- 
cretions of sea insects or animalcule ren-) 
dered concrete, by the admixture of petri-. 
factive particles ; while the cells of the hive, 
are constructed of vegetable materials, col- 
lected by the bee, though mingled, perhaps, 
with some portion of animal cement in the 
operation ; but ‘neither the one, nor the 
other, when completely formed, has any’ 
pretension to animal existence.—EpitT. © ° 
+ But do these descend in a graduated’ 
chain? Donot the examples that ensue’ 
shew that they rather diverge by compli-» 
cated ramifications? These objectionss: 
however, are to the metaphor,’ not tothe 
séntiment—to the: illustrations: snototos the- 
argument, — E:prr. 
