hasten in great numbers to follow her. She generally takes but a short flight, and wherever she settles, she is surrounded by her faithful and devoted subjects.

This is the process.--And here again, although the physical cause is obscure, the Creative intention is obvious.—A queen is said to lay from 50,000 to 100,000 eggs in a single season, all of which may produce living bees. No ordinary hive, or, in their wild state, no hollow of a decaying tree, in which they usually fix their habitation, is sufficient to contain such numbers with advantage. They must separate therefore into distinct communities; and that this may be effected in proper times, and under advantageous circumstances, this peculiar instinct is bestowed.

There are many other instincts and functions belonging to this interesting creature, besides those already mentioned, which it would be pleasing to enumerate, such as the nature of the means by which they communicate information; the remarkable power of stilling and confounding the hive, which is possessed by the queen in the emission of certain sounds; the qualities of wax and of honey; the precautions adopted by bees to obviate danger; the instinctive antipathies and affections both of the queen and her subjects. On these, however, I must not at present enlarge. Books have been written on the subject, and have not exhausted it; and I shall only add, that the whole history is impressed with traces of a Divine hand.

SEVENTH WEEK-WEDNESDAY.

VERTEBRATED ANIMALS. THEIR PHYSIOLOGICAL CHARACTER.

THE classes of living beings which I have hitherto been considering, are those belonging to the lowest species of existences, which possess no strong internal framework on which the living fibre may be sustained, but,

when strength is required, are fitted by their intelligent Creator with external apparatus for that purpose. Higher orders, however, were destined to inhabit this terraqueous globe, whose habits and functions seem to be incompatible with this mode of construction, and hence a complete and radical change of the animal organization was resorted to, and the great division of vertebrated animals took its origin.

The observations of Dr Roget on this subject are so sensible and so appropriate, that I am sure I cannot do any thing more acceptable than to use his words. If it be pleasing, says this philosopher, to trace the footsteps of Nature in constructions so infinitely varied as those of the lower animals, and to follow the gradations of ascent from the zoophyte to the winged insect, which exhibits the greatest perfection compatible with the restricted dimensions of that class of beings, still more interesting must be the study of those more elaborate efforts of Creative power, which are displayed on a wider field in the higher orders of the animal kingdom. In the various tribes of beings which are now to come before us, we find Nature proceeding to display more refined developments in her system of organization; resorting to new models of structure, on a scale of greater magnitude than before; devising new plans of economy, calculated for more extended periods of duration; and adopting new arrangements of organs, fitted for the exercise of a higher order of faculties. The result of these more elaborate constructions is seen in the vast series of vertebrated animals, which comprises a well-marked division of zoology, comprehending all the larger species that exist on the globe, in whatever climate or element they may be found, and including man himself, placed, as he unquestionably is, at the summit of the scale ;the undisputed Lord of the Creation.

A remarkable affinity of structure prevails throughout the whole of this extensive assemblage of beings. Whatever may be the size or the external form of these

animals, whatever the activity or sluggishness of their movements, whether they be inhabitants of the land, the waters, or the air, a striking similitude may be traced both in the disposition of their vital organs, and in the construction of the solid framework, or skeleton, which sustains and protects their fabric. The quadruped, the bird, the tortoise, the serpent, and the fish, however they may differ in subordinate details of organization, are yet constructed on one uniform principle, and appear like varied copies from the same original model. In no instance do they present structures which are altogether isolated, or can be regarded as the results of separate and independent formations.

In proceeding from the contemplation of the structures of articulated to those of vertebrated animals, we appear to pass, by a rapid excursive flight, from one great continent to another, separated by an immense gulf, containing no intermediate islands from which we might gather indications of those tracts of land having been originally connected. At the very first sight, indeed, the general fabrics of these two descriptions of animals appear to have been constructed on opposite principles; for, in the articulated, as we have already seen, the softer parts are internal, and are inclosed in a solid crust, or shell, or horny covering, answering at once the purposes of protection and mechanical support, and furnishing extensive surfaces for the attachment of the organs of motion. But in the vertebrata, the solid frame-work which serves these purposes, occupies, for the most part, an internal situation, constituting a true-jointed skeleton, which is surrounded by the softer organs, and to which the muscles, destined to move their several parts, are attached. The office of external defence is entrusted solely to the integuments, and their different appendages.

Such is the general character of the arrangements which Nature has here adopted; from which, however, she has occasionally deviated with respect to some im

portant organs of extremely delicate texture, and which require to be shielded from the slightest pressure. This occurs with regard to the brain and the spinal marrow, which are specially guarded by a bony structure, enclosing them on every side, and forming an impenetrable case for their protection. The solid mass of bone thus provided to defend the brain, gives also the opportunity of lodging safely the delicate apparatus subservient to the finer senses, namely, those of sight, of hearing, and of smell. The security which these organs derive from this protection, allows of their being carried to a higher degree of improvement than could be attained in the lower orders.

There is also another advantage, of considerable moment, which results from the internal situation of the skeleton, namely, that it admits of an indefinite extension by growth, without interfering with the corresponding enlargement of the softer organs; for, in all the instances in which this arrangement is reversed, that is, whenever the enclosing surfaces become solid, and can no longer yield to the dilatation of the contained organs, no alternative remains but that of breaking up the exterior case, and wholly casting it off, to make room for the further growth of the animal; after which operation, it has to be replaced by another covering of larger dimensions. This operation is generally required to be performed a great number of times, before the animal can acquire the size it is destined to attain. Hence the perpetual moultings of the caterpillar; hence the repeated castings of the shells of the crustacea; and hence, also, the successive metamorphoses of the insect. Nothing of this kind takes place among the vertebrata, where all the organs are developed in regular and harmonious succession, without the slightest mutual interference, and without those vicissitudes of action and of torpidity, which we witness in the chequered existence of the insect.*

* Dr Roget's Bridgewater Treatise, vol. i. pp. 261-265. VOL. III.

SEVENTH WEEK-THURSDAY.

REPTILES.-THE SERPENT.

In passing from invertebrated to vertebrated animals, a great step, as we have seen, is taken in animated nature. The whole type of the physiological structure is changed, and new principles are introduced. There are, notwithstanding, various resemblances and identical organs, which manifest the same great Artificer. There are, in both classes, organs of sight, of hearing, of smell, and of taste; there is the sense of feeling diffused in both cases over the whole body; the living fibre in both is of a similar nature; the animal exists and grows in both instances by consuming and digesting food; and it has powers of locomotion by means of legs and wings, or in some species by means of movements and writhings in the body. In all these, and in very many other particulars, there is an obvious analogy, and besides this, there is, in various species, an approach in form and in habits, which seems to be intended as a connecting link between the two great departments of living beings.

In this higher order of animated nature, as well as in the lower, there is an ascending scale, and as the simplest form of vertebrated animals is to be found in the waters, physiologists have agreed in introducing fishes into their systems, as the first and lowest class. It will, however, correspond better with my plan to proceed at present with the lower animals, belonging to the land; and, of these, I commence with the serpent, as one of the most simple in its bodily organization.

"The serpent," says Goldsmith, "has from the beginning been the enemy of man, and it has hitherto continued to terrify and annoy him, notwithstanding all the arts that have been practised to destroy it; formidable in itself, it deters the invader from the pursuit ; and