BIVALVE MOLLUSC AN S. 233 



concatenation that would evidently prove the 

 Wisdom that contrived, the Power that formed, 

 and the Goodness that gave a living principle 

 and breath of life to all these creatures, were 

 each of them the attributes of an INFINITE BEING. 



CHAPTER VIII. 

 Functions and Instincts. Bivalve Molluscans. 



HITHERTO in our progress from the lowest ani- 

 mals upwards, the mind has been perpetually 

 submerged; not only every group, but every 

 individual that we have had occasion to consider, 

 has been an inhabitant of the waters, and to the 

 great body of which a fluid medium is as neces- 

 sary to life and action as an aerial one is to a 

 land animal, but now we shall be permitted to 

 emerge occasionally, for although the largest 

 proportion of the animals forming the great class 

 we are now to advert to, the Molluscans, are also 

 aquatic, yet still a very considerable number of 

 them are terrestrial, as a stroll abroad will soon 

 convince us, when after a shower we find we can 

 scarcely set a step without crushing a snail or a 

 slug. 



