DENOMINATION OF GROUPS ILLUSTRATED. 325 
with them; but they are lower in the scale of per- 
fection. They seem, as it were, supplementary ; and, 
taken abstractedly, convey a very inadequate idea of 
the typical excellency of the other two groups, to which 
they are, nevertheless, connected: just as children, 
although belonging to their parents, exhibit only the 
immature excellencies and perfections éf those who 
are their closest kindred. Now, there is a very sin- 
gular analogy in all this to the last three fingers of 
the hand. They seem, indeed, to be necessary, but 
inferior auxiliaries to those offices chiefly performed by 
our typical fingers. They are material aids, but not so 
vitally essential ; since the loss of any one would not 
prevent an author, a painter, or a sculptor, from going 
on with his pursuits, nearly as well as if his hand was 
perfect. Could this be said, if either the thumb or the 
forefinger was lost ? Certainly not. 
(394.) Let the student now apply these analogical facts 
to the five great divisions of vertebrated animals. Quad- 
rupeds may be compared to the thumb; they are the 
strongest, the most bulky, the most developed, and the 
most perfect of all animals. Birds; in all these qualities, 
rank next to quadrupeds ; and they may, therefore, be 
compared to the forefinger. The longest of all vertebrated 
animals, in proportion to their circumference, are the ser- 
pents and reptiles ; and the middle finger will remind the 
student of this very peculiar characteristic. The two 
next fingers may be compared to the frogs and other 
Amphibia, and to the fishes: these last seem to be the 
farthest removed from quadrupeds, because they have 
no feet: they comprehend, also, the smallest of all the 
Vertebrata; but yet they are joined to quadrupeds by dol- 
phins and whales. The little finger will remind us of 
many of these facts. As regards size and thickness, it 
is the weakest and the least of all, and is, therefore, 
the most different from the thumb; but they are the 
only two which are of the same length, and they thus 
preserve the graduated scale which runs through the 
whole. It may be said that such familiar illustrations 
xy 3 
