CHAPTEE IV. 



FORM AND SIZE. 



WE are often led to form our idea of the civili- 

 zation of a tribe of men by the form, size, and archi- 

 tecture of their abodes. The villas of Greece and 

 Rome reveal to us, at a glance, that the nation which 

 could erect structures like them must have been far 

 advanced in the arts and sciences of civilized life. 

 The huts and tents, on the contrary, of savage 

 tribes, but little removed in point of comfort and 

 convenience from dens and caves, show us that 

 the nation dwelling in abodes so rude, so dark, 

 so unhappy, so miserable as these, must be but a 

 wild, uncultivated race. But this does not apply 

 to birds. What bird so sharp and sagacious as 

 the rook, or the jackdaw! yet what nests so 

 rude and inartificial! and how ill they contrast 

 with the beautiful structure of the chaffinch, or of 

 the wren ! Neither, indeed, can we always find, as 

 has been before remarked, a cause for the varia- 



