INTRODUCTION. 13 



certain functions is gone, and all that is left is a piece 

 of dead matter, which can remind us of nothing but 

 the size, shape, and consistency of the parts of which 

 it is made up. " A living dog" says Solomon, " is 

 better than a dead lion;" and the saying is true as re- 

 spects both the power of the animal, and the lesson 

 which the study of it is calculated to impart. 



Now man cannot be shut out from this means of 

 study, either by the situation in which he is placed, or 

 by want of education. If he shall have the range but 

 of one field, or even of one pathway, be that ever so 

 limited, there is still enough of nature to engage his 

 attention, afford him pleasure, and lead him to the con- 

 templation of that Being, " in the knowledge of whom 

 stands everlasting life." Nay, even in confinement, in 

 the gloomy solitude of the dungeon, cut off from all 

 intercourse with his kind, separated from those animals 

 which have been domesticated for use or for pleasure^ 

 and forbidden to look upon the fair sky and the fertile 

 earth, there are well-authenticated instances, in which 

 the mouse and even the spider have owned his domi- 

 nion, and come at his call, to amuse his solitude. These 

 instances show that, if we had time and patience for 

 finding out their instincts and perfections, there are 

 none of the works of nature that might not have their 

 use ; and that the whole range of the works of crea- 

 tion is so given to man, as that the link by which his 

 enjoyment is bound to them can be separated only 

 by the stroke of dissolution. 



When indeed our information extends only to our 

 own kind, we are, though we know all their habits and 

 all their history, in every age and country, in a state of 

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