18 
Transactions of the Society. 
is in sucli matters hemmed in by barriers impassable by human reason ; 
and knows as little of first causes, as it does of last consequences, ^et 
from the drama of animal life we may learn wholesome lessons. 
Here Nature suffers us to guess at her wishes, from her acts ; and 
so judged, we may well say of her, that 
“She too is no mean preacher.” 
For though her precepts are few, they are burnt into her pupils 
by her unvarying practice ; as, almost from birth to death, from the 
Primates to the Eotifers, she trains up her dumb children in the 
exercise of that splendid virtue — fearless Self-reliance. 
