PROGRESSIVE SCALE OF BEINGS. 309 



inces and towns, and even of the members of the same fam- 

 ily, we should imagine that the species of men were as various 

 as the number of individuals. How many gradations may be 

 traced between a stupid Huron, or a Hottentot, and a pro- 

 found philosopher ! Here the distance is immense ; but na- 

 ture has occupied the whole by almost infinite shades of dis- 

 crimination. 



' In descending the scale of animation, the next step brings 

 us to the monkey tribe. Man, in many particulars, undoubt- 

 edly resembles the animals of this tribe, more especially in 

 his bodily structure. But even in this respect, the lowest 

 variety of the human species does not nearly so much resem- 

 ble the highest of the apes, as the latter do the majority of 

 quadrupeds. In short, notwithstanding the attempts of some 

 philosophers to confound their own species with monkeys, it 

 requires only a small share of knowledge of the anatomical 

 structure of animals, and the general principles of natural 

 history, to convince any one of the folly and absurdity of such 

 speculations. 



' In the families of bats, of carnivorous, and of gnawing 

 animals, there is a gradual departure in their form and struc- 

 ture from that of the original standard, man. Instead of 

 fingers fitted for delicate motions and sensations, they are 

 possessed only of claws which are capable of far less varied 

 application and utility ; and passing on still farther, we find 

 in the*, ruminating and pachydermatous animals the toes en- 

 veloped in hoofs of different sizes and numbers, which totally 

 prevent them from being used for any thing but locomotion. 



' There is not only this regular gradation among individu- 

 als belonging to the same class, but there are instances in 

 which the individuals of different classes very nearly approach 

 each other in certain particulars. The bat, the flying squirrel, 

 the flying opossum, are instances of animals of the class mam- 

 malia, approximating to that of birds in the possession of 

 wings, or organs resembling them, \\ hilst the ornithorhynchus 

 resembles them in the structure of its nouth, and its mode of 

 producing its young by eggs. On the other hand, the ostrich, 

 the cassowary and the dodo, which have wings so short as to 

 be incapable of flying, and therefore always run or walk, are 

 instances of birds approaching, in some degree, to the char- 

 acter of quadrupeds. So, too, the cetaceous tribe affords an 

 example of the transition from the mammalia to fishes ; the 

 flying-fish, of the transition from birds to fishes ; the dragons, 

 of that from birds to reptiles. Many other examples might 



