286 SALMONIA. 



ORN. But give us some reasons for the 

 impossibility of the existence of this animal. 



HAL. Nay, I did not say impossibility; 

 I am too much of the school of Izaac Walton 

 to talk of impossibility. It doubtless might 

 please God to make a mermaid ; but I do not 

 believe God ever did make one. 



ORN. And why? 



HAL. Because wisdom and order are 

 found in all his works, and the parts of ani- 

 mals are always in harmony with each other, 

 and always adapted to certain ends consistent 

 with the analogy of nature; and a human 

 head, human hands, and human mammae, are 

 wholly inconsistent with a fish's tail. The 

 human head is adapted for an erect posture, 

 and in such a posture an animal with a fish's 

 tail could not swim ; and a creature with lungs 

 must be on the surface several times in a day 

 and the sea is an inconvenient breathing 

 place; and hands are instruments of manu- 

 facture and the depths of the ocean are 

 little fitted for fabricating that mirror which 

 our old prints gave to the mermaid. Such 

 an animal, if created, could not long exist ; 



