PREFACE. XI 



pages. Another and a more serious charge has 

 been brought against zoological science as de- 

 livered to us by the scavans of Germany and 

 France : it is asserted that it has been made a 

 vehicle for the insidious poison of infidelity. 

 That it has no natural adaptation to such an 

 end is certain, that it has been perverted to 

 such a purpose, is, we fear, too true. Our au- 

 thor at least, in our minds, stands clearly ac- 

 quitted of such a charge, but as his views of 

 science have been distorted by others to the 

 prejudice of religion, a distortion which has, 

 perhaps, been facilitated by an occasional want 

 of precision in his style, it has been our parti- 

 cular care in every individual instance of such 

 perversion, to show its utter inapplicability to 

 such au end. It is not the heavens alone that 

 " declare the glory of God," nor the firmament 

 only " which sheweth his wondrous works." 

 His omnipotence, his wisdom, and his superin- 

 tending providence, are equally manifested in 

 the meanest worm that creeps upon the earth, 

 and in the lowest of the radiated tribes that 

 slumber in the coral caves of ocean. 



