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vision, may we not again express a wish that Mr. Kirby had spared us this exhibition of his ingenuity?

So much with regard to the Introduction; as to the main body of the work, we venture to think that it sometimes assumes the form of a general history of animated nature, too minute in detail, and too dry in technical sub-divisions, classes, orders, sub-classes, and sub-orders-(see Vol. II. from p. 390 to 394; and p. 414, &c. &c. &c.)-to suit the taste of the public, whilst the great object of his essay, viz. the manifestation of "The Power, Wisdom, and Goodness of God, as proved in the Creation of Animals, and in their History, Habits, and Instincts," challenged no such elaborate formalities. With less learning, then, and less labour, our author had produced, perhaps, a work more popular, we will not add more valuable; for, indeed, we very highly prize the admirable volumes under review, with the perusal of which, (to use the expressive phrase of the Roman orator,) we acknowledge ourselves "incredibiliter delectari."*

But how shall we show their contents, so various, so minute, so curious? How shall we analyze his learned pages? How compress even a brief abstract of his labours within the space usually allotted to a review? To appreciate his talents we must entreat our readers to consult the pages of Mr. Kirby for themselves; and yet it is our province and our pleasure to afford them a general insight into the nature of the able and entertaining volumes before us, however meagre may be our exposition. Come with us, then, and visit this copious museum of rarities; inspect, under our guidance, this large menagerie of animals-this zoological garden; and if you fail to admire the diligence, the research, the accuracy, the knowledge, the felicity of style, and the piety of purpose, which every where characterize the learned and fingenious Rector of Barham, attribute the fault to his reviewers rather than to him, and be persuaded that a perusal of his pages will amply justify our warmest panegyric.

The treatise consists of two octavo volumes, adorned with numerous plates, and divided into twenty-five chapters, written in a style at once perspicuous and eloquent. Though his materials be infinitely various, his object is ever the same; nor in the minute details of the history of animals does he ever forget Him who made them all by his wisdom, provides for them all in his goodness, and sustains them all by his power. However multifold be his speculations, and however diversified his inquiries; however wide be his digressions, and however elaborate his fancies; with unity of purpose he is ever found to return to the illustration of the character of the Deity, and to "do all to the glory of God," as the chief design and characteristic aim of his studies. It is this which imbues Lis pages with an odour of perpetual sanctity; and

Cic. de Senect.

we walk with our author as in a temple consecrated to God, surrounded on all sides by spectacles of holiness, and breathing all the while an atmosphere of religion!

Whether we look to the "creation of animals," or to their "geographical distributions," or to their "migrations," or to their "local distributions," or to their "general functions and instincts;" whether we examine the lowest grade of animals, the "infusories," "polypes," "radiaries," "tunicaries," "bivalve molluscans," "univalve molluscans," "cephalopods," "worms," "annelidans," "cirripedes and crinoïdeans," "entromostracan condylopes,' ,""crustacean condylopes," "myriapod condylopes;" or whether we scrutinize their "motive, locomotive, and prehensory organs," as distinguished into "rotatory organs," "tentacles," "suckers," "bristles," "natatory organs," "wings," "steering organs," and "legs;" or whether we investigate the mysterious doctrine of "instinct in general," "a wide and mazy field,”—or trace this halfreasoning power in particular classes of animals, developing, with our author, the functions and instincts of "arachnidans, pseudarachnidans, and acaridan condylopes;" or study the character of "insect condylopes;" or explore the history of "fishes," "reptiles," "birds," and "mammalians," till at length we ascend to man" himself; we fall down and worship the mighty and benevolent Author of the universe, "dimly seen in these his works," which demonstrate "his goodness" to be "beyond thought," and his "power" to be divine; himself, the wise artificer, by this knowledge of his creatures, inducing us with humble piety to extol

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"Him first, him last, him midst, and without end."

The history of the animal kingdom naturally commences with the creation of animals, which our eloquent author thus introduces as exemplifying the goodness of God.

Unpeopled by animals, the verdant earth, in all its primitive and untarnished beauty, though inlaid with flowers exhibiting, in endless variety, every mixture and shade of colour that can glad the sight; though fanned by gales breathing Sabean odours, to gratify the scent; though tempting the appetite by delicious fruits of every flavour; still would be a scene without the breath of life. No motions would be seen but of the passing clouds, of the fluctuating waters, and the waving boughs; no voice heard but of the elements.-Vol. I. pp. 2, 3.

Hence the seeming necessity of the creation of animals; hence the variety of animals,

Some furnished with organs that would enable them to traverse and enliven the lower regions of the atmosphere, others that might course over the earth's surface, and others that could win their easy way through its waters, so that all, by their numbers, and the variety of their motions, might exhibit a striking and interesting contrast to the fixed and unconscious vitality of the vegetable kingdom.-Vol. I. p. 3.

Our pious and learned author seems to be of opinion that there was a marked distinction between the creation of other animals and that of man; for whilst the waters and the earth were bidden of God to bring

forth the moving creature, each after their kind,-whence the Almighty is thought not to have acted immediately in their formation, but by the agency of secondary powers, established by him as rulers in nature, and "by which he ordinarily, as it were, taketh hold of the material universe," the creation of man was his immediate work, without the intervention of any subsidiary agent.

"Let us make man." He was therefore neither sea-born nor earth-born, as some ancient nations claimed to be, but born of God; though, as Christ moistened clay when he was about to exercise his creative power, in the reforming of an eye; so was the humid earth used in the creation of the body of man by his Maker.—Vol. I. p. 8.

Man being installed into his kingdom over the globe, behold! every thing was very good; fitted to answer the end of its creation, and to perform its allotted part in contributing to the general welfare. But what shall we say to the case of animals preying upon each other? Is such an economy consistent with the goodness of the Deity? To solve this difficult problem, our author would have us believe that predaceous animals originally fed upon grass or straw, like the ox, neither injuring nor destroying their fellow-beasts of a more harmless character.

Of the truth of this hypothesis we entertain serious doubts. Yet, allowing its truth; allowing, moreover, that the predatory tribes were furnished with offensive weapons, which were providentially supplied to meet the future necessities of their use, when man should have fallen into apostasy and ruin; we beg to ask how, on our author's scheme, the goodness of the Deity is vindicated? How could that economy of predatory warfare, which lay dormant only till a certain contingency should take place, which was foreknown to be about to happen, be compatible with the benevolence of God, if the original employment of these offensive arms of mutual slaughter be thought to militate against divine goodness? Is this predatory economy less cruel because it was foreseen? Perhaps, (for we would write with becoming diffidence upon these mysterious points,) perhaps Paley's view is more philosophical. Our limits forbid us to transcribe his sensible reflections upon this case, and therefore we content ourselves with a mere reference to his celebrated chapter on the goodness of the Deity, which discusses the very case of animals devouring one another.*

Our learned historian is pleased to tell us not only that vegetable diet was originally the provision made for and used by all animals, but that, before the close of this sublunary scene, all animals shall again return to it, so as to render the last age of the world as happy as the original state of man in Paradise. To prove this, an appeal is made to Isaiah lxv. 25! O! when will men forbear to misinterpret Scripture, by construing the metaphors of the prophets as if their imagery were plain literalities? And why introduce these hypothetical conjectures in

↑ "Paley's Natural Theology," chap. xxvi.

such a history as we have under review? In such a treatise, it were far wiser to check the sallies of conjecture, and to say with Newton, "Hypotheses non fingo."

We would apply the same remark to our author's opinion touching certain insects of a disreputable name, and other pests of a similar nature, which he deems to have been created with a view to the punishment of man, either in his person or property.

Can we believe that man, in his pristine state of glory, and beauty, and dignity, could be the receptacle and the prey of these unclean and disgusting creatures? This is surely altogether incredible, I had almost said impossible.-Vol. I. p. 15.

To meet this difficult case, it is argued that such animals were created subsequently to the fall. All this is conducted with singular modesty we allow; and yet we can hardly welcome such displays of ingenuity in a history of animals designed to establish the Divine wisdom, power, and goodness, upon a solid basis of unquestioned facts. We hold no dissimilar judgment upon another topic of our author, who seems to think that some antediluvian monsters (according to general opinion,) may be yet living in some unapproachable centre of the world, and that there may be some communication in the unfathomed depths of the ocean with this dark and inland sea. Aquatic and amphibious Saurians, occupying a middle station between the Cetaceans and Ophidians, (the dragons of Scripture,) are the animals which our learned author conjectures to be still in existence in the subterranean ocean. He adduces some arguments to support his hypothesis, and tells us that he builds his views upon analogy in the first place, for that the depth of the sea nowhere exceeds 30,000 feet, which, compared with the diameter of our globe, about 8,000 miles, may be regarded as nothing.

What a vast space then, supposing it really hollow, may be contained in its womb, not only for an abundant reservoir of waters, but for sources of the volcanic action, which occasionally manifests itself in various parts, both of the ocean and terra firma. Reasoning from analogy, and from that part of the globe which falls under our inspection, it will appear not improbable that this vast space should not be altogether destitute of its peculiar inhabitants.— Vol. I. p. 33.

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The organization of many reptiles, fitted for a subterranean habitation, and the known existence of one Saurian,t that is perfectly subterranean, which never makes its appearance on the earth's surface, but is always concealed at a considerable depth below it, complete our author's proof of the nonimprobability of a subterranean metropolis for the Saurian, and perhaps other reptiles." At the same time he adds,— I would by no means be thought to contend that none of these animals are extinct, but solely that all may not be so, and that their never having been found in a recent state may have arisen from the peculiar circumstances of their situation.-Vol. I. p. 36.

Having considered the first creation of the animal kingdom, and the

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leading facts of its history to the time of the deluge, our author next discusses their geographical and local distribution. We forbear to enter into the details of this truly interesting inquiry, for the sake of adorning our pages with a longer extract from our author, who thus sums up his views on the question before him.

Herein is the divine wisdom and goodness most conspicuous. Had chance, or nature, as some love to speak, directed the distribution of animals, and they were abandoned to themselves and to the circumstances in which they found themselves in their original station, without any superintending power to guide them, they would not so invariably have fixed themselves in the climates and regions for which they were evidently intended. Their migrations, under their own sole guidance, would have depended for their direction upon the season of the year, at which the desire seized them to change their quarters : in the height of summer, the tropical animals might have taken a direction further removed from the tropics; and, in winter, those of colder climates might have journeyed towards instead of from them. Besides, taking into consideration other motives, from casual circumstances, that might have induced different individuals belonging to the same climates to pursue different routes, they might be misled by cupidity, or dislike, or fear. On no other principle can we explain the adaptation of their organization to the state and productions of the country in which we find them-I speak of local species-but that of a Supreme Power, who formed and furnished the country, organized them for it, and guided them into it.-Vol. I. pp. 58, 59.

Will Mr. Kirby forgive us if we confess that our risible muscles were severely taxed by the following statement?

In England we have two breeds of swine, one with large flapping or pendent ears; of this description are those fattened in the distilleries in and near London: the other with small, erect, acute ears, common in the county of Suffolk. When it is considered, that the varieties of the above animals with erect ears appear to exhibit altogether a better character, if I may so speak, than their less spirited brethren, whose ears are pendent or laid back, and that this circumstance seems to indicate some approach to civilization in them; it may, probably, be deemed to result from some development of the brain produced by education, and present some analogy to the effects of the latter in the human species. Vol. I. pp. 61, 62.

We beg with all possible gravity to ask whether this hypothesis be reconcileable with the "large flapping" ears of the "half-reasoning" elephant?

Leaving, however, the subject of the dispersion and present stations of the various members of the animal kingdom, let us hear our author's sentiments relative to the human race. Whilst some physiologists have taught us that God has not made of one blood all nations of men for to dwell on all the face of the earth, but that there are different species of men as well as of other animals; or that, at the flood, some men escaped from the sad inundation by taking refuge on the mountain ridges of Asia and Africa, whence arose the three principal races, the Caucasian, the Mongol, and the Negro, which now hold possession of our globe; it is triumphantly demonstrated by our learned historian, that-

The variations observable in the different races of men are not of such a nature as to render it impossible, or improbable, that they should all have been

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