48 
WILD SCENES AND SONG-BIKDS. 
animal, a perfect polypus ; and the Humming-bird, the link 
between Insects and Birds, agreeing with the larger species 
of moths in the character and manner of taking — (on the 
wing) — its principal food ; though it cannot live long on 
nectar alone, but, as a bird, must have insects occasionally, 
or it will die ; and then the feather which in the moth has 
become gradually more perceptible to the naked eye, in this 
bright creature is splendidly perfected. How beautifully 
the waves glide into each other in this calm harmony of be- 
ing ! 
Then at the other end of the scale of birds, we have the 
Ostrich and Penguin, with wings incapable of flight ; and 
the Bat, the link between birds and animals ; and, what 
is still more curious, an animal in New Holland, with the 
horny bill of the duck and body of the hair seal. We 
have not time for more particular citation. We Avill go on 
up to the monkey, the orang-outang, the man; the inter- 
mediate grades are filled up in the manner we have shown. 
And here we lay it down as a proposition of physics ; that 
through the whole chain of being, whether what is called ani- 
mate or inanimate, there is yet this connecting link between 
every change, not only of class, but of order, genus, and spe- 
cies — that the individual intermediate in this change pos- 
sesses a double nature, embracing in a less degree the charac- 
teristics of the class, order, etc., left, and in a greater those 
of that entered upon — that this chain of progression is un- 
broken from the atom up to man ! Taking for granted, of 
course, the proposition of spiritual existences, the irresisti- 
ble inference from all this linked analogy is — that man, be- 
ing the perfection and last gradation of material existence, 
forms the link between it and the spiritual ; being the indi- 
vidual intermediate, possesses a double nature, embracing in 
a less degree the characteristics of the class left, and in a 
greater, those of that entered upon ; that the two elements 
of this double nature are the material or reasoning, which he 
possesses in common with other forms of animal life ; and 
