48 WILD SCENES AND SONG-BIRDS. 



animal, a perfect polypus ; and the Humming-bird, the link 

 between Insects and Birds, agreeing with the larger species 

 of moths in the character and manner of taking (on the 

 wing) its principal food ; though it cannot live long on 

 nectar alone, but, as a bird, must have insects occasionally, 

 or it will die ; and then the feather which in the moth has 

 become gradually more perceptible to the naked eye, in this 

 bright creature is splendidly perfected. How beautifully 

 the waves glide into each other in this calm harmony of be- 

 ing! 



Then at the other end of the scale of birds, we have the 

 Ostrich and Penguin, with wings incapable of flight ; and 

 the Bat, the link between birds and animals ; and, what 

 is still more curious, an animal in New Holland, with the 

 horny bill of the duck and body of the hair seal. We 

 have not time for more particular citation. We will go on 

 up to the monkey, the orang-outang, the man; the inter- 

 mediate grades are filled up in the manner we have shown. 



And here we lay it down as a proposition of physics ; that 

 through the whole chain of being, whether what is called ani- 

 mate or inanimate, there is yet this connecting link between 

 every change, not only of class, but of order, genus, and spe- 

 cies that the individual intermediate in this change pos- 

 sesses a double nature, embracing in a less degree the charac- 

 teristics of the class, order, etc., left, and in a greater those 

 of that entered upon that this chain of progression is un- 

 broken from the atom up to man I Taking for granted, of 

 course, the proposition of spiritual existences, the irresisti- 

 ble inference from all this linked analogy is that man, be- 

 ing the perfection and last gradation of material existence, 

 forms the link between it and the spiritual ; being the indi- 

 vidual intermediate, possesses a double nature, embracing in 

 a less degree the characteristics of the class left, and in a 

 greater, those of that entered upon ; 'that the two elements 

 of this double nature are the material or reasoning, which he 

 possesses in common with other forms of animal life ; and 



