UNION OF THE ANNULOSA AND VEBTEBRATA. 5 



the shellfish above insects, we may strengthen what 

 we have here said by the sentiments of others whose 

 writings have exhibited entomology in its most attractive 

 garb. c What unsophisticated mind, not entangled in 

 the trammels of system, when it surveys the industry, 

 the various proceedings, and the almost miraculous 

 works of insects, the waxen palaces of the bee, the 

 paper cottages of the wasp and hornet, the crowded me- 

 tropolis of the white ants, the arts, the manufactures, the 

 stratagems of other insects, the associations and labours 

 for the common good of those which are gregarious, will 

 not at once conclude that they must be a superior race 

 to the slug, the snail, and others, which live only to eat 

 and propagate their kind ! " * Again, it has been well 

 observed that the station which any particular group 

 of animals holds in the scale of creation must be judged 

 of, not by a fancied and often forced resemblance to the 

 human structure as the only standard, but according to 

 the ingenuity displayed in their organisation, and the 

 variety of effects which may depend on it. t The most 

 careless observer, indeed, is well aware that many of the 

 vertebrate animals are far inferior to insects, both in 

 their instincts and the complexity of their structure. 



(6.) The vertebrate and the annulose divisions 

 being thus the two most perfect classes in the animal 

 kingdom, it necessarily results that they follow and 

 blend into each other. We accordingly find, that the 

 two circles touch at those points where the eel- shaped 

 fishes come into contact with the Annelides, or red- 

 blooded worms ; the affinity of these groups being now 

 so universally admitted, that we need not defend the 

 theory of their union. On the other hand, the Annulosa 

 are connected to the Radiata by means of the barna- 

 cles, whose long stems, rendered pliable by innumerable 

 articulations, at once place them within the definition 



* Kirby and Spence, Introduction to Entomology, iv. 364. 

 t Hor. Ent. 206. 



