derived from a common stock; and that the degradations observable in some of them, and approximation to the highest of the brutes, was caused not by the will and fiat of the Creator, but by their own wilful departure from him, and voluntary self-debasement. Because they did not like to retain God in their knowlege, he gave them over to a reprobate mind, to do those things that are not convenient: further, that with respect to those characters, which distinguish one nation from another, they may be attributed to the action of physical causes directed by the Deity: who, to use the language of a pious and excellent poet, "Lives through all life, extends through all extent, Spreads undivided, operates unspent." -Vol. I. pp. 87, 88. The migrations of animals, both periodical and casual, is a subject singularly illustrative of the hand of a beneficent and ever watchful Providence, directing them to change their quarters, and seek often in distant countries a more genial climate, in which they may give birth to their young, or find a better supply of food for their own support. Who is not familiar with the locust and the lemming? the bison and the musk ox? the antelope and the rein-deer? the swift and the swallow the sturgeon and the cod-fish? the haddock and the mackarel, and the herring and the salmon? The migration of animals abundantly proves the benevolence of a superintending guide; for— If we give this subject of the migration of animals due consideration, and reflect what would be the consequence if no animals ever changed their quarters, we shall find abundant reason for thankfulness to the Almighty Father of the universe, for the care he has taken of his whole family, and of his creature man in particular, consulting not only his sustentation and the gratification of his palate by multiplying and varying his food, but also that of his other senses, by the beauty, motions, and music of the animals that are his summer or winter visitors. By means of these migrations, the profits and enjoyments derivable from the animal creation are also more equally divided, at one season visiting the south, and enlivening their winter, and at another adding to the vernal and summer delights of the inhabitant of the less genial regions of the north, and making up to him for the privations of winter. What can more strongly mark design, and the intention of an all-powerful, all-wise, and beneficent Being, than that such a variety of animals should be so organized and circumstanced as to be directed annually, by some pressing want, to seek distant climates, and, after a certain period, to return again to their former quarters; and that this instinct should be productive of so much good to mankind, and, at the same time, be necessary, under its present circumstances, for the preservation or propagation of the species of these several animals.-Vol. I. pp. 128-130. We would gladly quote an eloquent passage from the fifty-seventh page of this volume, and have, indeed, marked it with our official obelus for that purpose; but our contracted limits deny us the gratification, and hurry us to the "functions and instincts of animals," which form the theme of the subsequent chapter of the elaborate treatise before us, and are made happily subservient to our author's great design, by illustrating the goodness that willed, the wisdom that planned, and the power that executed the wondrous whole;— So that each in its place and station, by employing the faculties and organs, with which he has gifted it, in accomplishing his will, praises, though unconsciously, its almighty and beneficent Creator, thus loudly calling upon man, the rational head of the creation, to take up the strain, and lead the general choir.-Vol. I. p. 139. Mr. Kirby, in the first place, investigates the general functions of the animal kingdom, both as they affect the vegetable world, and also their own body. He points out the contrast and contrariety existing between animals and vegetables; so that whilst the plant takes root in and decks the earth, and purifies the air, the animal browses and trims the vegetable, and checks its luxuriance, and yet manures it with fresh pabulum for its sustentation. The constant tendency of animals to multiply so as to injure each other, is wisely restrained by the antagonist struggles and mutual destruction which God employs as his agents to effect the common welfare of his creatures. To maintain things in this state,. . . . to cause all so to harmonize, and so out of death and destruction to bring forth life, indicates still more strongly the constant and wise superintendence, and powerful arm of a watchful Providence, and demonstrates irrefragably that there is a Great Being constantly at work, either mediately or immediately, to produce effects that, without his constant superintendence and intervention, could never take place. And thus, as sings the bard of Twickenham, -Vol. I. Pp. 144. "All nature is but art unknown to thee, All chance direction which thou canst not see, All partial evil, universal good." From this general view of his subject our author comes to the consideration of the functions and instincts of particular classes of animals; and instead of beginning, as is usually done by systematic writers, with the highest grade, he ascends from the lowest, and terminates with man at its summit. Amongst the lowest are placed the infusories and polypes. These animalcules talk of Him who made them. "In his tam parvis, atque tam nullis," says Pliny, "quæ ratio, quanta vis, quam inextricabilis perfectio!" And what shall we say of the coral architects of the mighty deep? Let us again quote the eloquent language of the historian under review. When the Creator formed the coral animals, what foresight, as well as power and wisdom, did he manifest! That a minute pouch of animated matter, with no other organs than a few tentacles surrounding its mouth, should be fitted to secrete calcareous particles from food collected by it, to transpire or regurgitate them so as to construct for itself a limestone house, that it should be empowered perpetually to send forth germes that could also act the same part; and thus in process of time, by their combined efforts, build up, in the midst of the fluctuating ocean, not merely insignificant islets, but whole groups of islands, which in due time are rendered fit for the habitation of man himself, and do in fact become his permanent abode- but not only this, but should so order all other circumstances connected with this procedure, as, for instance, the action of the waves and winds upon this nascent little world, that when the animal has built up to that point, which its nature, for it cannot exist when removed from the influence of its native element, enables it to attain, should take up the wonderful work and complete the design of the Great Creator, and give the structure its due elevation and consolidation, should furnish it with fountains and streams of water; should cover it with a soil capable of affording sufficient nutriment to trees and plants, which should in their turn afford food for some part of the animal kingdom, and finally for man himself. How evidently does all this show the adaptation of means to an end. What a number of calculations must be made, what a number of circumstances taken into consideration, what a number of contingencies provided against, what a number of conflicting elements made to harmonize and subserve to the promotion of a common purpose, which it is impossible could have been effected but by the intervention and constant guidance of an unseen Being, causing all things so to concur as to bring about and establish what he designs! And, when we further consider the multiplicity of aspects in which the subject must be viewed, in order to get a clear and correct idea of the cooperation of so many causes, seeming often at variance with each other; we may further affirm, without fear of contradiction, that the whole must be the plan and the work, as the primary and only intelligent cause, of a Being infinite in power, wisdom, and goodness. Vol. I. pp. 186-188. Radiaries, tunicaries, bivalve, and univalve molluscans, cephalopods, worms, annelidans, might afford our readers much gratification, and ourselves abundant opportunities of making beautiful extracts, so graphically are they painted by our author, and so minutely described in all their multifold characters and organization, to the manifestation of the glory of the mighty Artificer, by whose fiat they were made, and by whose care they are preserved; but we have other curiosities, of equal interest, to challenge our notice, and to these we turn with the assurance of reaping both delight and instruction from the edifying and attractive dress in which our learned author is wont to clothe his topics. In this immense treasury of rarities, upon what object shall we place our hands? Like a child, introduced to the wonders of a museum, we are distracted by the multiplicity of marvels presented to us; and almost forfeit the opportunity of examining any thing accurately by a vain endeavour to make ourselves acquainted with all that we behold. Where, then, shall we fix our choice? No matter where ! Quote we, therefore, our pious author's meditations upon the metamorphoses of animals. He asks Do not these successive changes in the outward form, functions, and locomotions of so many animals, preach a doctrine to the attentive and duly impressed student of animal forms, and their history- do they not symbolically declare to him, that the same individual may be clothed with different forms, in different states of existence, that he may be advanced, after certain preparatory changes, and an intermediate interval of rest and repose, to a much more exalted rank; with organs, whether sensiferous or locomotive, of a much wider range; with tastes more refined; with an intellect more developed, and employed upon higher objects; with affections more spiritualized; and further removed from gross matter?-Vol. II. p. 27. Mr. Kirby never forgets his subject, the character of God as declared by his works,-nor loses an opportunity of strengthening the doctrines of Christianity, when even the remotest analogies permit his recurrence to topics so dear to his heart. Witness the following remark : It may be observed with regard to this constant scene of destruction, this never universally intermitted war of one part of the creation upon another, that the sacrifice of a part maintains the health and life of the whole; the great doctrine of vicarious suffering forms an article of physical science; and we discover, standing even upon this basis, that the sufferings and death of one being may be, in the Divine counsels, and consistently with what we know of the general operations of Providence, the cause and instrument of the spiritual life and final salvation of infinite hosts of others. Thus does the animal kingdom in some sort PREACH THE Gospel of ChriST.-Vol. II. pp. 62, 63. How well does our pious historian moralize! He reads an instructive lesson, like his blessed Master, in almost every passing circumstance that meets his eye! Witness the following passage :— As far as we can lift up the mystic veil that covers the face of nature, by means of observation and experiment, we find that every iota and tittle of an animal's structure, is with a view to some end important to it; and the Almighty Fabricator of the Universe and its inhabitants, when he formed and moulded, ex præjacente materia, the creatures of his hand, decreed that the sphere of locomotive and sentient beings should be drawn together by mutual attraction, and concatenated by possessing parts in com:non, though not always devoted to a common use; thus leading us gradually from one form to another, till we arrive at the highest and most distinguished of the visible creation; and instructing us by his works, as well as by his word, to cultivate peace and union, and to seek the good of the community to which we belong; and, as far as our influence goes, of the whole of his creation.-Vol. II. pp. 91, 92. Let us introduce our readers to the Giraffe; so striking is the seeming disproportion of many of its parts, that they might take it for an abortion, in which the posterior extremity was not fully developed. The length of its neck, the elevation of its withers, the declivity of its back, and the lowness of its hind quarters, might warrant such an inference. But if we proceeded to inquire into the nature of its food, and were told that it subsisted by cropping the branches of certain trees which thus it was enabled to reach, the truth would flash upon us, we should immediately perceive the correspondence between its structure and its food, and acknowledge the design and contrivance of a benevolent Creator in this formation.-Vol. II. p. 175. The spider, the kangaroo, the bee, the horse, the elephant, the pelican, the beaver,-yea, all animated nature, from the microscopic mite to the huge whale; from the most insignificant reptile to man himself, a —are preserved, as it were, in this ark of the Rector of Barham, and invite our attention, and tell us, in language which it is impossible to misunderstand or pervert, that "He who could effect all this could only be one whose understanding is infinite, and whose power and goodness are equally without bounds." We leave these subjects with regret, for the difficult question of the instincts of animals, which our author has endeavoured to make less intricate than it has hitherto been. Are these instincts to be attributed to appetite or intellect? To both, or to neither? "Who taught the bee, that wise workman, to act the geometer, and to erect her threestoried houses of hexagonal structures?" This is the question which Mr. Kirby essays to answer. Admitting that every kind of instinct has its origin in the will of the Deity, and that the animal exhibiting it was expressly organized by him for it at its creation; and excluding such remarkable cases, with respect to dogs and other animals, which seem to belong to intellect and memory rather than to instinct; he argues that the proximate cause of instinct must be either metaphysical or physical, or a compound of both characters. If it be metaphysical, he asserts that it must either be the immediate action of the Deity, or the action of some intermediate intelligence employed by him, or the intellect of the animal exibiting it. It is argued that God cannot be the immediate instructor, for then instinct would be infallible, in opposition to the fact established by the circumstance that the flesh-fly will mistake the blossom of the carrion plant for a piece of flesh, and lay her eggs in it. Neither is instinct the action of any intermediate intelligence, whether angel or demon, employed by the Deity upon the animal; for that hypothesis, like the former, is incompatible with the possibility of mistake. Neither will our author concede that instinctive powers are the result of extraordinary intellectual ones, since this supposition ill accords with the anatomical character of brutes; for where the nervous system is cerebral, we find the most striking examples of intellectual action; whilst in the classes whose nervous system is ganglionic, we discover comparatively little intellect, but the most miraculous operations of instinct." Hence," he says, "it seems to follow that extraordinary instinctive powers are not the result of extraordinary intellectual ones;" but if no metaphysical power be the immediate cause of instinct, it must be traced either to a physical one, or to a cause partly physical and partly metaphysical. Mr. Kirby is of opinion that instincts, whether they belong to those relating to the multiplication of the species, or to those relating to the food, or to those connected with the hybernation of animals, (the three general heads into which he divides instincts,)—— Have their beginning in consequence of the action of an intermediate physical cause upon the organization of the animal, which certainly renders it extremely probable that such is the general proximate cause of the phenomena in question. -Vol. II. pp. 275, 276. Do our readers inquire, what may be the subtle substance empowered by the Deity to act upon animal organizations and structures to produce their varied instincts? Let them receive an answer from the eloquent author under review. If we consider the effects produced by the great physical powers of the heavens, by whatever name we distinguish them: that they form the instrument by which God maintains the whole universe in order and beauty; produces the cohesion of bodies; regulates and supports the motions, annual and diurnal, |