DISTINCTIVE CHARACTERS OF ANIMALS. 



197 



hence facts to show, as we had occasion to observe formerly, that various 

 quadrupeds of the largest size, as the elephant, mammoth, rhinoceros, and 

 hippopotamus, which are now traced in a living state in the hot parts of Asia, 

 Africa, or America alone, formerly existed, as to certain species that have 

 been long extinct, in the highest northern latitudes : and that, consequently, 

 such species must have had such a discrepancy of habit and organization, 

 like the dog and the ox tribes of our own day, as enabled them to endure the 

 difference. 



Such, then, is a brief sketch, I will not say of the animal kingdom, but of 

 the most popular arrangements which have hitherto been attempted concern- 

 ing it. It would have been much easier, and might have been much more 

 interesting, to have extended the survey : but the thread of connexion would 

 then, probably, have escaped from us, and we should have lost the system in 

 the fulness of the description. 



Enough, however, and more than enough, has, I trust, been offered to prove 

 that the study of zoology is of a most interesting and inviting character, 

 equally calculated to win the heart, and to inform the head. I have dwelt some- 

 what more at large upon the three lowest classes of worms, insects, and 

 fishes, for the very reason that these classes have too often been passed over 

 by naturalists, as little v/orthy of their attention ; and because I wished to 

 impress upon your minds, by the incontrovertible fact of living examples, that 

 nothing is low, nothing little, nothing in itself unworthy, in the view of the 

 great Creator and common Parent of the universe ; that nothing lies beyond 

 the reach of his benevolence, or the shadow of his protectio-n. God alike sup- 

 plies the wants and ministers to the enjoyments of every living creature: he 

 alike finds them food in rocks and in wildernesses, in the bowels of the earth, 

 and in the depths of the ocean. His is the wisdom that, to different kinds 

 and in different ways, has adapted different habits and modes of being; and 

 has powerfully endowed with instinct where he has strikingly restrained 

 intelligence. It is he that has given cunning where cunning is found neces- 

 sary, and wariness where caution is demanded ; that has furnished with ra- 

 pidity of foot, or fin, or wing, where such qualities appear expedient; and 

 where might is of moment, has afibrded proofs of a might the most terrible 

 and irresistible. 



At the head of the whole stands man, the noblest monument of creative 

 power " in this diurnal scene," and in a state of purity and innocence, a faint 

 image of the Creator himself; connected with the various classes of animals 

 by his corporeal organization, but infinitely removed from them by the pos- 

 session of an intelligent and immortal spirit ; his chief distinction, to the 

 external eye, consisting in the facultj?- of language, and the means of commu- 

 nicating and interchanging ideas : — a subject full of interest and of import- 

 ance, and towards which, therefore, I shall beg leave to direct your attention 

 after we have examined this lord of the universe in the different varieties he 

 exhibits in different parts of the world, under the influence of climate, manner 

 of life, and incidental circumstances. 



Thus nature varies : man, and brutal beast, 

 And herbage gay, and scaly fishes mute, 

 And all the tribes of heaven, o'er many a sea, 

 Through many a grove that wing, or urge their song 

 Near many a bank or fountain, lake or rill . 

 Search where thou wilt, each differs in his kind, 

 In form, in figure, differs.* 



neck like that of the larger birds ; and from the form of its paddles, it is probable that, like the crocodile, it 

 swam on the surface of the ocean ; an idea which is confirmed by various specimens found on the Dorset- 

 shire coast, where the present writer has seen one or two nearly entire specimens. 



* Praeterea genus humanum, mutaeque natantes 

 Squamiferflm pecudes, et laeta armeiita, feraeque, 

 Etvariae volucres, laetantia quae loca aquarum 

 Concelebrant, circum ripas funtisque, lacQsque ; 

 Et quae pervolgant nemora avia pervolitantes ; 

 Quorum unum quod vis generatim sumere perge, 

 Invenies tamen inter se diffcrre figuris. 



De Nat, Rer. il 342. 



