MAMMALIA. 



105 



grateful to " piggy" than all the " spicy groves" of the 

 fragrant east. 



In this, and it is no doubt the same in the case of 

 the senses of all the mammalia, there is a very marked 

 difference from the same sense in man ; and this 

 difference alone might, if properly studied, of itself 

 teach us that in man there is something more than 

 the mere animal. We too have our animal sensations, 

 the desires arising from which extend no farther than 

 the supply of our bodily wants. But in addition to 

 these there is something higher, more refined and ex- 

 quisite, and more enduring. In the case of the ani- 

 mals, when the sense has produced its animal purpose 

 it remains quiescent until that purpose demands a new 

 service : in man, on the other hand, " the eye is 

 never satisfied with seeing or the ear with hearing- ;" 

 and it is after we have satisfied ourselves with the 

 banquet that we feel the greatest desire for the per- 

 fume, and derive the most pleasure from it. 



Farther than this, those supplemental pleasures which 

 we derive from our senses, over and above what the 

 animal wants of the body require, are capable of an 

 unlimited degree of cultivation, second only to the 

 general cultivation of the mind in knowledge, and 

 second to that only because they are less general and 

 more immediately allied to the senses. It is impos- 

 sible to be endowed with the capacity of making a 

 comparison and drawing an inference, without per- 

 ceiving that there is a trace of immateriality and 

 consequent immortality in this; and any branch of 

 any inquiry is never so profitable as when it leads to 

 a result of this kind, because this result, independently 

 of its own intrinsic value, invariably heightens the 

 usefulness of that from which it arises. 



We have gone more fully into the structure and 

 use of digging organs, and the habits of the animals 

 which possess them, than we have done into some 

 others which ma}' at first sight appear to be of more real 

 importance. We have done this for two reasons; first, 

 because the animals which possess them are, on account 

 of other parts of their structures scattered through 

 the system, and there is no work with which we are 

 acquainted, that can afford to a common reader even a 

 glance at them in their juxtaposition ; and secondly, 

 because this portion of the mammalia, from the pecu- 

 liarities of the races which it includes, is calculated 

 to give origin to many trains of thought which, from 

 their unexpectedness, as well as their beauty, are 

 eminently calculated to promote a love of nature and 

 a consequent desire to know it, and at the same time 

 lo call forth, in the most pure and lively manner, our 

 admiration of the power, wisdom, and goodness of 

 nature's Author. We regret that our limits do not 

 permit us to enter more largely into those specula- 

 tions, but as any single one of them is ample subject 

 for a volume, and as we must confine ourselves to a 

 few pages, we must leave them, and pass to another 

 division of our general subject. 



SEC. IV. Organs of Feeding. The grand purpose 

 for which the mammalia, and indeed all animated 

 beings, exist in nature, is that of feeding, and to this 

 all the systems of their organisation, and even the 

 faculty of continuing the race in the several species, 

 are obviously subservient. There is in fact a very 

 strong confirmation of the general position, in fact an 

 absolute demonstration of it in this last circumstance. 

 Iv.ich animal is, in a state of nature, perfectly con- 

 stant to its species lions produce nothing but lions, 

 bears nothing but bears, and so on through the whole 



catalogue. The mules, or mixed breeds, which are 

 produced between some species, in a state of domes- 

 tication, furnish no objection against this, for they 

 prove only that domestication in so far changes the 

 nature of the animals. We believe that there is no 

 recorded instance of a wild female of any species being 

 the mother of a mule, though there are instances of 

 mules between tame females and wild males. This 

 shows us by the way, that the instinct of preserving 

 the species unbroken is committed chiefly to the 

 female. Those crosses, even when both animals are 

 in a state of complete domestication, and when every 

 art is used to bring them about, in consequence of the 

 superiority of the next progeny over pure blood for 

 certain purposes, can only take place between species 

 which, in all the leading points of their organisation, 

 and all the essential parts of their economy, bear a 

 close resemblance to each other. Even when the 

 mule has been obtained, it cannot maintain itself for 

 even one successive generation. There is not a 

 single instance of the progeny of two perfect mules, 

 that is mules of the first cross, although mules are 

 perfect animals, as well as those of the pure blood of 

 either parent. Their tendency to propagate is much 

 weaker indeed than that of the pure animal of either 

 species, but though weak it does exist, and the male 

 will, in the language of breeders, " breed back to the 

 pure blood," and the more readily the more nearly 

 pure that blood is. We must consider it, there- 

 fore, as a general law of the animal economy, that 

 there is in each species a power not only of continu- 

 ing itself by successive generations, but a power of 

 preserving its species pure and unmixed, which in a 

 state of nature is never broken in upon by contingent 

 circumstances. 



The question naturally arises, what is the purpose 

 of this power ? What end does it serve in that general 

 system of nature, of which all the parts are so har- 

 monious, that each may be said to be made for the 

 other, as obviously as are the different organs of the 

 same animal ? The answer to these questions is easily 

 given. Every distinct species has a distinct part to 

 act in nature's economy, to which part it is, in a state 

 of nature, as strictly confined as the successive gene- 

 rations of each species are confined to that species. 

 This is clearly established by historical testimony and 

 by monumental record. There are countless regions 

 of the world from which, not only since the records 

 of the human race began, but within the period of 

 modern history, races of animals have entirely va- 

 nished, though they were once so numerous as to 

 form characteristic features of their several localities. 



Within the modern period we cannot regard those 

 extinctions of animals as purely natural occurrences, 

 for man has come in to play his part ; and in very 

 many instances, where he did not choose to domes- 

 ticate he has destroyed, it may be sometimes not with 

 " absolute wisdom." The bones of the animals which 

 speak from the dust give evidence of a more purely 

 natural kind, and therefore more to the purpose. We 

 are not to suppose that the elephant of Siberia was 

 exterminated by human means, or the valley of the 

 Ohio was less wooded or less wild when the mighty 

 volume of the mastodon trode its savannahs. As little 

 are we to suppose that those animals which are found 

 in the earth abundantly in many parts of Europe, and 

 of which the nearest living types are to be found in the 

 tropical parts of the eastern or western continent, 

 were exterminated bv human means. Animals slumber 



