London Insects. 127 



nerves or apparent consciousness, but holding by 

 patent conferred by learned men, who have spent 

 their lives in studying them, brevet rank as animals, 

 mix in undistinguishable confusion with so-called 

 vegetables which move and act as thinking beings. 



They are the lowest class of the third great 

 natural order, the "articulate? the jointed animals 

 which have their supports answering to a skeleton 

 outside, not like boned animals, inside the soft 

 fleshy parts. 



Below the insects stands the whole order of the 

 "Radiata" star fishes, &c., which, made in rays 

 running out from a centre like the spokes of a wheel 

 from the axle, give the order its name coral makers, 

 animal flowers and jellies, and tiny revolving wheels 

 and balls. 



Below, or side by side with the insects, according 

 to the point of view from which we may prefer to 

 look at them, stand Crabs and Lobsters and Worms, 

 and above them, Spiders. 



Above these stands, with its many subdivisions, the 

 order of the Molluscs. Soft-bodied boneless creatures, 

 with a perfect system of circulation of blood, such as 

 it is, colourless stuff. Never " articulated " or jointed 

 like the class below, with endless varieties, from the 

 Slugs and Snails which give London gardeners 

 opportunities enough of studying the family in its 

 humblest members up to the Cuttlefish and the 

 Nautilus 



" The sea-born sailor of a shell canoe." 



Higher still comes the noblest order of the Back- 

 bones running through all its grades Fish, Reptiles, 

 Birds and Beasts, till actual knowledge is brought to 

 a full stop for the present at Man. 



