PLANARIA. 95 



CHAPTER III. 



PLANARIA. 



FROM the earliest periods of history, various animals of the lower 

 orders have attracted notice, either on account of singular conformation, 

 for their useful properties, or from their noxious nature. But others, 

 equally deserving observation, have been overlooked, despised, and ne- 

 glected, as if quite unimportant among the nobler works of the creation. 



Formerly the credulous were more ardent in quest of marvels, than 

 of the undisguised simplicity of truth. Nor did they seek those marvels 

 which bounteous nature is always prepared to disclose to them, for the 

 purpose of mental elevation, or in adoration of the Omnipotent Architect. 

 Rather than pursue knowledge for their own improvement by disco- 

 very, they descended to the baser objects of imposture and deception, 

 whether active or passive, to hold their fellows in controul. Had they 

 been exalted, by the purity of intellectual contemplation, to a due esti- 

 mate of the religion of nature, by the structure of the animated universe, 

 unspeakable sources of admiration would have opened before them. 



It does not belong to mankind to pronounce the perfections or the 

 imperfections, the use or the uselessness, of what has come from the 

 hands of the Creator, or that the aspect or dimensions of one creature 

 has rendered it more worthy a place in the scale of beings. These are 

 points inscrutable. 



But this does not repress our desire to become still better and better 



