THE SHORES OF BRITAIN. 101 
horn-like processes of the head, are very long. Thus 
we perceive, and there are many other examples 
which might be adduced, that it has pleased God 
to vary the forms of created beings, not by making 
each on a separate and independent plan, but by 
creating certain forms, which are viewed as types or 
models, and varying the parts, common to many spe- 
cies, in detail. The one mode would have been as 
easy as the other; there can be no gradations of faci- 
lity in creation to Omnipotence; but doubtless He 
had wise ends in view in thus proceeding, though we 
may fail, from ignorance, in discerning them. Pro- 
bably one reason may have been the formation of 
one harmonious whole out of the multitude of living 
creatures, which could not have been formed had 
every one been essentially different from all others. 
But, as it is, we see that deviations in structure and 
form are gradual, that one species varies but little 
from a certain type, another varies a little more, and 
so on; thus connecting each with each in a most 
beautiful order, something like the manner in which 
the links of a chain hang from each other, or perhaps 
still more, like an immense number of circles, so 
arranged as to touch other circles in many parts of 
their circumference. Goldsmith flippantly asserts, 
that the Shrimp and the Prawn “seem to be the 
first attempts which Nature made when she medi- 
tated the formation of the Lobster.” Such expres- 
sions as these, however, are no less unphilosophical 
than they are derogatory to God’s honour; these 
animals being in an equal degree perfect in their 
kind, equally formed. by consummate wisdom, inca- 
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