68 CLASSIFICATION OF FISHES. 



(69.) And now are we to rest here? Can such a 

 system be the work of human invention ? If sOj those 

 who believe it is^ are unwittingly doing us far higher 

 honour than was ever yet bestowed upon the greatest 

 naturalists that ever Iived_, — or such a system had never 

 been left for us to invent. But no; let the glory be 

 His, to whom it belongs. Other branches of human 

 knowledge exalt the creature^ because they d'^pend^ so 

 to speak, only upon the inventive faculties of man : but in 

 many of the physical sciences it is the reverse ; the glory 

 of the wonderous things such researches unfold " is the 

 Lord's ; " and man is but the humble instrument in 

 his hands of making them known. Like the stars of 

 heaven^ they remain unchanging and unchanged ; and 

 although they may stand open to all^ as living but silent 

 testiir^onies of His hand : they are not so obtrusive^ but 

 that they may be disregarded or denied by the careless^ 

 the disputant^ or the sceptic. 



(70.) The great and paramount object with which 

 we began the series of the Cabinet of Natlral His- 

 tory was to trace, as far as possible, the prevalence of 

 a few general laws of natural classification through the 

 whole range of the animated kingdom of nature. In a 

 former volume we endeavoured to exhibit the study of 

 analogies, not merely under its most captivating form, 

 but as absolutely essential to all those who looked be- 

 yond the mere technical sm-face of Natural History. We 

 are desirous on this occasion, however, to employ, for 

 the same purpose, a strain of eloquence, justness of 

 thought, and soundness of principle, far greater than our 

 own, while the facts we have just adduced are as yet 

 fresh in the memory of the reader. 



(71.) " The main prerogative of the human mind," 

 says the eloquent author of Saturday Evening, " is its 

 power of gathering general principles from a multitude 

 of diversified forms or appearances. The pre-eminence 

 of the faculty of generalisation constitutes what is termed 

 the philosophic character. The delight with which 

 minds of this class contemplate universal truths does 



