CLASSIFICATION. 



of animals, is the union of what is most perfect and beautiful in 

 them all. Hence, animals which have a resemblance to Man are 

 not without reason styled perfect in a degree proportioned to that 

 resemblance. 



With these preliminary observations, we enter on our pleasur- 

 able task, and proceed to trace the varied forms of animal exist- 

 ence from the first dawn of life to Man himself, who, standing 

 supreme in his mental capacities, rises by his immortal destiny 

 incomparably beyond them all. 



Turning our attention to the great scene before us, " Beast, bird, 

 fish, insect, which no eye can see, no glass can reach," so strange 

 and diversified are their shapes and attributes, that the student 

 naturally inquires, What is an animal ? a question which he will 

 soon find to be much more easily propounded than satisfactorily 

 solved. 



At the first glance ot the superficial observer, the distinctions 

 between the animal and vegetable kingdoms seem plain and 

 obvious. We all know a cow from a cabbage, a horse from the 

 grass upon which it feeds ; and yet, as we come more closely to 

 scrutinize forms of life less violently contrasted, doubts and hesi- 

 tations soon begin to teach us that the discrimination is not always 

 so easy, and that at length the differences between the animal 

 and the vegetable creations become almost imperceptible. Light 

 and darkness seem distinct enough, and no one possessed of eye- 



