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MAMMALIA. 



tory or true animal system, we find the egg produced 

 in a very short time, and abandoned by the parent 

 the instant it is deposited. It is true, this egg in the 

 most minute species to which own observation 

 can reach, is always brought forward to a certain 

 stage within the body of the parent, and it is equally 

 true that the parent is in all cases endowed with an 

 instinct, by means of which it places the egg in that 

 situation which is most favourable for its present pre- 

 servation, its further development, and the obtaining 

 of food by the young animal after it awakens into 

 life. The provision made, and the ingenuity dis- 

 played, in many cases of this kind, are indeed truly 

 wonderful ; and the reader will find many remarkable 

 instances of them narrated in the general articles 

 ENTOMOLOGY and INSECT, and in various particular 

 articles of that department of the animal kingdom in 

 this work. 



Upon this part of the subject it is necessary to 

 exercise a very sound discretion in order to avoid 

 falling into a very serious error ; and indeed through- 

 out the whole range of physiology, and it is far from 

 a narrow one, there is more danger of error than in 

 any other department of human study. It may seem 

 strange, but it is nevertheless true, that doctrinal 

 errors in religion are not so injurious, even in a 

 religious point of view, as many of our physiological 

 errors. The physiological error spoils the instru- 

 ment which we bring to the study of religious truth ; 

 and if the instrument is spoiled, no excellence of the 

 materials can make the workmanship good ; whereas, 

 if the instrument is sound and perfect, we have means 

 of shifting from the bad material to the good, and so 

 perfecting our work. 



The great error into which we are apt to be betrayed 

 upon this subject, and those who betray us into it are 

 often actuated by the purest and most benevolent 

 intentions, is that of ascribing forethought and provi- 

 sional knowledge to the creatures in thus disposing of 

 their eggs in situations the most favourable for their 

 preservation and development ; and by this means a 

 kind of reasoning respecting cause and effect is im- 

 puted to the very humblest orders of animated being?. 

 The tendency to do this is so very general, that we 

 can scarcely open a book in which the habits and 

 manners of animals are treated of, without meeting 

 with numerous, fervent, and eloquent expatiatings on 

 their sagacity ; by which "sagacity" it is invariably 

 meant that the animal so acting knows what it is about 

 pursues a certain course, from a previous conviction 

 that this course is to lead to a particular result. 



Now there are only two ways of enabling any being 

 whatever to do this. The first is a perfect knowledge 

 of the future in itself, and without the necessity of any 

 analogy, or the means which can serve as a key to it. 

 If we grant this power with regard to any portion of 

 time, however short, we by necessary consequence 

 grant it for every possible extension of future time, or 

 in other words for all eternity ; because if the morrow 

 of this day is known of itself, and without any guid- 

 ance of analogy, or other experimental clue to what it 

 may bring forth, the to-morrow of next day, and so on 

 without end, must be equally known. But this intui- 

 tive knowledge of the future, without any experience 

 of the past, or other means or medium of information, 

 is one of the most characteristic attributes of Godhead ; 

 and a being who knows to-morrow, or even next mo- 

 ment in its own unhappcned occurrences, must be 

 .capable of knowing every jot of the destiny of a world, 



or system of worlds, before the same is called into 

 existence. If, therefore, we attribute this kind of 

 knowledge of the future to any animal, whether the 

 perceptive powers of that animal are more or less 

 active and extended or as we say developed we, 

 by necessary consequence, make a god of the animal, 

 and thereby destroy our proper understanding and 

 feeling of the God of nature. If we do this, we at 

 once lay the axe to the root of all that is wise and 

 good in our own characters, and with so impure an 

 alloy debasing our understandings, our morality and 

 our religion are nothing more than hypocritical fic- 

 tions, for the sake of imposing upon the world for the 

 furtherance of our selfish purposes, which, with minds 

 so degraded and debased, can be nothing but grosn, 

 sensual, and animal. Thus an error of this kind, 

 though committed with the very best intentions, and 

 expressed in the most proper and even pious language, 

 is virtually a quenching of the immortal spirit within 

 us ; and we forfeit the hope of eternal happiness by 

 becoming unworthy of it. 



We must, therefore, abandon this notion of the pro- 

 visional knowledge of those animals, in the depositing 

 of the germs of their young ; and when we have done 

 so, the question of " what other kind of knowledge 

 can they have of the future" arises, and demands an 

 answer. 



" Coming events cast their shadows before," 



says the wizard to Lochiel, in Campbell's delightful 

 poem. But these are the words of a wizard, a pre- 

 tender to a portion of that knowledge in himself, 

 which we have shown can be possessed by God only ; 

 and though it may be possible that, imbued with the 

 superstitions of his native land, and touched with a 

 live coal from the altar of Apollo, which sublimes and 

 illuminates the fancy high and radiant above the sober, 

 level, and calm light of philosophic thinking, the 

 Child of inspiration may have believed or half believed 

 what he wrote ; we must bring him down to that 

 common level, and quench and dim him to that sober 

 light, before we can admit him as evidence. If the 

 coming event does cast a shadow before it, that sha- 

 dow must tell upon the past ; for shadow, as well as 

 light, is not substantive in itself, and therefore it is 

 not revealed to our perception unless it tells upon 

 something, and something substantial if it is to be 

 very apparent. The common shadow in sunlight or 

 moonlight tells on the ground or on the wall, but it 

 does not tell upon the clear atmosphere. In like 

 manner unless the shadow of the future tells upon the 

 experience of the past, it is impossible to trace any 

 knowledge of it ; and therefore any being that is not 

 God can have no knowledge of the future, except 

 what it derives by analogy of reasoning from the past, 

 upon the simple and self-evident principle that, like 

 causes operating under like circumstances must pro- 

 duce the same effect at one time as at another. 



This is the principle upon which man proceeds in 

 the course of knowledge and the progress of action ; 

 but the body of man is merely animal matter, and has 

 I no concern whatever in this. Sensation, however 

 keen it may be, and however pleasurable, or however 

 painful, is but fur the moment ; and it acquires dura- 

 bility as a subject of remembrance only through the 

 operation of the mind, which has the power, though 

 we can but ill explain that power, of recalling our 

 experience of the past, and setting it before us as 

 our means of judgment, and our guide with regard to 



