IqO a general view of the 



minds, our thoughts^ our wishes, and our wants. The organs of 

 speech are limited to personal communications ; they cannot convey 

 our ideas to persons at a distance from us, much less are they ahle 

 to transmit them to those who may come after us. But man has 

 succeeded in establishing a permanent channel of communication. I 

 take up my pen, and in a few minutes can exhibit in intelligible 

 characters to all around me every thing that has been passing in my 

 mind. The results of years of laborious research, of long and weary- 

 ing thought, can at once be placed before thousands by the press. 

 Thus every new view — every new discovery in Natural History — 

 every inquiry that has occupied the attention of a life — is submitted 

 to the world, where it is canvassed, verified, or corrected. Cotem- 

 poraries and posterity, instead of i-ecommencing the investigation, 

 begin where it terminated ; every step is secui'ed, and the thoughts 

 and actions of a man's life, become beacons for the guidance of his 

 successors. Without these means a knowledge of the various pro- 

 ductions of Nature could not have extended far; as it is, they have 

 given a vast impulse to the study in this country : to the publications 

 in France, and to those of the immortal Cuvier especially belong the 

 credit of this impulse in the departments of recent and fossil Zoo- 

 logy. 



It does not fall within the scope of the present lecture to enter 

 into the details of Natural History ; but I shall endeavour to bring 

 before you the primary divisions of the subject, and to exhibit some 

 of the interesting objects they severally embrace. 



At the head of animated beings stands man. Observe him in his 

 social and in his uncivilized stale : mark the eft'ects produced by the 

 activity of his reasoning powers; his habits from infancy inclining 

 him to look to others of his species for his pleasures, consolation, 

 and support ; thus impressing on his character the feelings of pa- 

 rental love and the desire for social intercourse. His passions tem- 

 pered by civilization : and the curious contemplations of an aspiring 

 intellect subdued and harmonized by religion. From man turn your 

 attention to tlie several tribes of animals with habits and instincts 

 often superior to his own, with senses in no way inferior ; capable 

 of enjoyment, of at'achment, and dislikes; sensible to j^Ieasure and 

 amenable to pain ; but devoid of those intellectual powers whicli 

 add the delights of contemplation and hope to the love of life. 



From quadrupeds pursue the stream of vitality through birds of 

 every size and eveiy hue, from the Eagle soaring above the tops of 

 the mountains, and the gigantic Crane stalking upon the arid plains 

 of India, to the Humming-bird fluttering from Hower to Hovver, sip- 



