186 
MARINE SAURIANS. 
forms and combinations that occur but in one 
other genus of Mammalia, they are the same 
that co-existed in the sternum of the Ichthy- 
osaurus of the ancient world ; and thus, at 
points of time, separated from each other by the 
intervention of incalculable ages, we find an 
identity of objects effected by instruments so 
similar, as to leave no doubt of the unity of the 
design in which they all originated. 
It was a necessary and peculiar function in the 
economy of the fish-like Lizard of the ancient 
seas, to ascend continually to the surface of the 
water in order to breathe air, and to descend 
again in search of food ; it is a no less peculiar 
function in the Duck-billed Ornithorhynchus of 
our own days, to perform a series of similar move- 
ments in the lakes and rivers of New Holland. 
The introduction to these animals, of such 
aberrations from the type of their respective 
orders, to accommodate deviations from the usual 
habits of these orders, exhibits an union of com- 
pensative contrivances, so similar in their rela- 
tions, so identical in their objects, and so perfect 
in the adaptation of each subordinate part, to 
the harmony and perfection of the whole ; that 
we cannot but recognise throughout them all, 
the workings of one and the same eternal prin- 
ciple of Wisdom and Intelligence, presiding from 
first to last over the total fabric of Creation. 
