DENOMINATION OF GROUPS ILLUSTRATED. 325 



with them ; but they are lower in the scale of per- 

 fection. They seem, as it were, supplementary ; and, 

 taken abstractedly, convey a very inadequate idea of 

 the typical excellency of the other two groups, to which 

 they are, nevertheless, connected : just as children, 

 although belonging to their parents, exhibit only the 

 immature excellencies and perfections of those who 

 are their closest kindred. Now, there is a very sin- 

 gular analogy in all this to the last three fingers of 

 the hand. They seem, indeed, to be necessary, but 

 inferior auxiliaries to those offices chiefly performed by 

 our typical fingers. They are material aids, but not so 

 vitally essential ; since the loss of any one would not 

 prevent an author, a painter, or a sculptor, from going 

 on with his pursuits, nearly as well as if his hand was 

 perfect. Could this be said, if either the thumb or the 

 forefinger was lost ? Certainly not. 



(94.) Let the student now apply these analogical facts 

 to the five great divisions of vertebrated animals. Quad- 

 rupeds may be compared to the thumb ; they are the 

 strongest, the most bulky, the most developed, and the 

 most perfect of all animals. Birds, in all these qualities, 

 rank next to quadrupeds ; and they may, therefore, be 

 compared to the forefinger. The longest of all vertebrated 

 animals, in proportion to their circumference, are the ser- 

 pents and reptiles ; and the middle finger will remind the 

 student of this very peculiar characteristic. The two 

 next fingers may be compared to the frogs and other 

 Amphibia, and to the fishes : these last seem to be the 

 farthest removed from quadrupeds, because they have 

 no feet : they comprehend, also, the smallest of all the 

 Fertebrata; out yet they are joined to quadrupeds by dol- 

 phins and whales. The little finger will remind us of 

 many of these facts. As regards size and thickness, it 

 is the weakest and the least of all, and is, therefore, 

 the most different from the thumb ; but they are the 

 only two which are of the same length, and they thus 

 preserve the graduated scale which runs through the 

 whole. It may be said that such familiar illustrations 

 Y 3 



