174 PBOSERPINA. 



tinct orders of investiture for organic creatures ; first, 

 mere secretion of mineral substance, chiefly lime, into a 

 hard shell, which, if broken, can only be mended, like 

 china by sticking it together ; secondly, organic sub- 

 stance of armour which grows into its proper shape at 

 once for good and all, and can't be mended at all, if bro- 

 ken, (as of insects) ; thirdly, organic substance of skin, 

 which stretches, as the creatures grows, by cracking, over 

 a fresh skin which is supplied beneath it, as in bark of 

 trees ; fourthly, organic substance of skin cracked sym- 

 metrically into plates or scales which can increase all 

 round their edges, and are connected by softer skin, below, 

 as in fish and reptiles, (divided with exquisite lustre and 

 flexibility, in feathers of birds) ; and lastly, true elastic 

 skin, extended in soft unison with the creature's growth, 

 blushing with its blood, fading with its fear ; breathing 

 with its breath, and guarding its life with sentinel benefi- 

 cence of pain. 



6. It is notable, in this higher and lower range of 

 organic beauty, that the decoration, by pattern and colour, 

 which is almost universal in the protective coverings of 

 the middle ranks of animals, should be reserved in vege- 

 tables for the most living part of them, the flower only : 

 and that among animals, few but the malignant and sense- 

 less are permitted, in the corrugation of their armour, to 

 resemble the half -dead trunk of the tree, as they float 

 beside it in the tropical river. I must, however, leave the 

 scale patterns of the palms and other inlaid tropical 



