SUBJECTS OF NATURAL HISTORY. 191 



ping their sweets ; from the Vulture to the gentle Wren. Between 

 these extremes, what heauty in form and plumage ! What variety in 

 song and habits ! The air is often filled with the warbling tribe ; 

 the groves and thickets on every side resound with their notes of joy 

 and affection. 



The waters, again, are full of activity. The ocean teems with 

 life : fish of every kind — the Whale, the Lobster, and the Shrimp. 

 Every reef is bristling with corals and sponges, and every tide- 

 washed rock is carpetted with fuci, or studded with Acliidie and 

 Molluscs. Then, again, the insect tribe, with their wonderful me- 

 tamorphoses. From insects, the simpler forms of animal life are 

 found in Worms, Infusoria, and Entozoa ; until at last we are con- 

 ducted to the confines of another scene, where the organisms of ani- 

 mal life are hardly to be distinguished from vegetable structures. 

 This boundary passed, we ascend upon another scale to forms far 

 different, but singularly beautiful, and quite as varied — the stately 

 Oak, the Palm, the Mushroom, and the Lichen. Every blade of 

 grass, every weed, exhibits a structure maintaining the functions of 

 vegetable life, by which the materials of nourishment are drawn up 

 from the ground, sent through millions of little pipes or tubes into 

 the leaves, and in returning promote the growth of the individual, 

 and secure the further propagation of the species by perfecting the 

 seed. 



To such an endless assemblage of living forms, you may well sup- 

 pose that a great deal of learning, a great deal of observation, and 

 an immense amount ofmental labour has been devoted, for the pur- 

 pose of their arrangement and classification ; and as a system of 

 classification is essential to the study of Natural History, I must 

 detain you with a few remarks upon the matter. Naturalists, in 

 tlie present day, are actively engaged in studying all the minute 

 parts of animals and plants, both internal and external; so that 

 tlieir affinities and alliances in the great connected chain of Nature 

 may be determined, and their true place in a natural system fixed. 

 In this way the habits of animals and the sensible properties of plants 

 are best associated, and their organi;iation elucidated with the 

 greatest accuracy. But this, which is the natural method, requires 

 great industry and an extensive knowledge, and, I may say, is yet 

 in its infancy. A vast deal has been done, but much remains to be 

 accomplished ; many links ia the chain are wanting, and, unfortu- 

 nately perhaps for amateurs, a host of hard names derived from the 

 Greek arc employed as terms of designation, and they have not given 



