KIRBY'S II 'STORY, HABITS, ANt) INSTINCTS OF ANIMALS.
THIS seventh number of the Bridgewater Treatises is an ingeni- ous and learned, but an odd work. The facts and illustrations —collect; d from a variety of sources—are frequently felicitous and surprisine- : sometimes so obvious as to be trite; and (we may say it at once) the detailed examples are far more strikintrl' and elaborate in the, lower than in the higher order of animals. As a theologian, the author is much too learned and accomplished to he guilty of the blunders which disfigured Lord BROUGHAM s Dis- course; lint the parson Las unfortunately triumphed over the philosopher. The Reverend Mr. KIRBY has not only blended revelation with natural theology, but he has given his reader a species of sermon on the interpretation of mysteries, and indulged in a fanciful speculation upon this subject, which the more sober divine may not only deem misplaced here, but uncalled for any- where.
This interpretative fancy is put forward in a long introduction, and relates to the Cherubim and Seraphim, but chiefly to the Cherubim. According to our author, the carved image of the Cherub was a double symbol, one part of which was earthly, the other heavenly or atmospheric. The earthly, amongst other things, re- presented the works of God, on the study of which man was to exercise his ingenuity ; and was typical of the subject of the Bridgewater Treatises, or at least of that treatise which Mr. KIRBY has underiaken-
" But before I enter further into this mysterious subject, it will be proper to obviate an objection that may be alleged, viz. that it is incongruous and out of place to introduce, into a work like the present, any inquiry into the nature and contents of the Jewish temple, especially the meaning of those symbolical images placed in the Holy of llolies and called the Cherubim ; but when it is further considered, that these symbols are represented as winged animals with four laces, and that these faces are those of the kings and rulers, as it were, of the animal kingdom,—naluelv, the ox, the chief amongst cattle ; the lion, the king of wild beasts; and the eagle, the ruler of the birds; and lastly, Man, who has all things pot lender leisfeet,—there seems to be no slight connexion between the cherubim and the animal creation."
In the higher sense, the Cherubim " are to be considered as the intermediate agents of the Divinity, forming his chariot or 4wellin,,,r-p:ace in the vulgar sense,* but representing in its more mystical meaning the heavens—that is, the clouds or water, fire or heat, light, and air or wind—the leading sustaining powers as it were of material creation.
Having settled the matter of the Cherubim, and slightly touched upon that of the Trinity, our worthy divine comes down to his more immediate subject, and takes a view of our world and its in- habitants, both animal and vegetable; deducing from his general survey, proofs of the power, wisdom, and goodness of God. In this section of his work, there are some pretty, some ingenious, and even some eloquent illustrations of his argument; there are also speculations distinguished for their boldness, and fancies curious for their minuteness. He thinks, for example, that some of the monsters, whom we call antediluvian, and whose races we assume to be extinct, may be yet living in the centre of the world ; and that perhaps there may be a communication in the depths of the ocean with this dark and inland sea. He deems that all the present carnivorous animals lived upon a vegetable diet before the Fall ; and that, when the Millennium arrives, they will become herbivorous again. He also holds it to be incredible that a certain class of parasitical insects, whose • -The chariot of the Cherubim, that spread out their wings and covered the ark of the covenant or the Lord."—I.Chron.uciii. 15. • Whose name is called by the name of the Lord God of hosts, that dwelleth between the Cherubim."—I. ciun. xiv. name is unmentionable to ears polite, should have been existent in Paradise ; and thus judiciously states the alternatives following from that belief, and his arguments against the abeyance of the pcdiculi, &c.
Can we believe that man in big 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. And we must either believe, with Le Clerc and Bonnet, that all those worms now infesting our intestines existed in Adam before his fall, only under the form of eggs, which did not hutch till after that sad event ; or that these eggs were dispersed in the air, in the water, and in various aliments, and so were ready to hatch when they met with their destined habitation ; or, as sonic parasites are found in the earth, or the water, as well as in the human species, that they are in general formed for living in different stations ; or, lastly, that they were created subsequently to the fall of Adam, not immediately or all at once, but when occasions called for such expressions of the Divine displeasure. With respect to the first of these hypotheses, it seems to me improbable, for this reason,—that it supposes the first pair to have in them the germes of all these animal pests, which although, before the Fall, they were restrained from germination, after that event, were left to the ordinary action of physical laws, so that then every one of these scourges must have inhabited them and preyed upon them. Fallen indeed they were from glory and grace; but who can think that all the accumulated evils that their sin introduced into the world fell with concentrated violence upon their own heads—that all the various ills that flesh is heir to were experienced by them in their own persons, before they were divided, some to one and some to another, amongst their posterity ? It is scarcely to he supposed that any single indiridnal, from that time to this, leas subject to the annoyance of ercry one of these animals, and it seems incredible that Adam and Eve had experience %latent
The following bits, if not in a better, are at least in a graver vein.
DULNESS OF A VEGETABLE WORLD.
Unpeopled by animals, the verdant earth in all its primitive and untarnished beauty, though inlaid with flowers exhibiting in endless vat iety 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. Was a single pair placed in this paradise, though at first it would seem that there was gratification for every sense, and joy would possess the heart, and ad- miration fill the soul with pleasure,—yet after the novelty of the spectacle had ceased, and the effect of its first impression was obliterated, a void would 1100n be felt, something- more would SeeDI wanting to animate the otherwiseJovely scene; a longing would arise in the tenet for scene beings, varying in form and magnitude, 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 ;ill, by their numbers and the variety of their 'notions, might exhibit striking and interesting contrast to the fixed and unconscious vitality of the vegetable kingdom.
A DVA N TAGES OF MIGRATIONS OF ANI3IA LS.
If we give this subject of the migration of animals due consideration, and reflect what would be the consequence if no animanls ever changed their quar- ters, we shall find abundant reason for thankfulness to the Almighty Father of the universe, for the care he lice 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 vin. siters : did the nightingale forsake our groves, the swallow our houses and gar- dens, the cud- fish, mackerel, salmon, and herring our sea', and all the other animals that occasionally visit us, their several haunts, how vast would be the abstraction from the pleasure and comfort of our lives!
By means of these migrations, the profita 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 suunner de- lights Lf the inhabitant of the less genial regions of the North, and inciting up to him for the privations of winter. Had the Creator so willed, all these animals might have been organizal so as not to require a warmer or a colder climate for the breeding or rearing of their young ; but his will was, that sonic of his best gifts should thug oscillate, as it were, between two points, that the benefit they conferred might be more widely distributed, and not become the sole property of the inhabitants of one climate ;—thus theswallow gladdens the sight both of the Briton and the African ; and the herring visits the coasts, and the salmon the rivers, of every region of the globe. What can more strongly mark design, and the intention of an all- powerful, all-wise, and beneficent Being, than that such a vat iety of animals should be so organized and circumstanced as to be directed anaualiy, 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, aud, at the same time be necessary, under its present circumstances, fur the preservation or propagation of the species of these several animals ? With an exposition of life and its uses, the general view of the second part of the subject terminates, and the writer enters upon his third division. In this lie examines, seriatim, the different functions and instincts of the animal creation, from the lowest order of animalcule up to man himself; displaying the more strik- ing points at length when they support or illustrate his main argument. We have said already that the lower orders are treated with far more of fulness and mastery than the higher ones; indeed the majority of vertebrated animals are displayed with formal dryness, which is more adapted to a treatise on Natural History than to a work where specimens of the wonders of nature are alone fitted to display to ignorant carelessness the attributes of the Author of Nature,—for be it remembered, that the Bridge- water Will assumes the existence of a First Cause, so that proof by reasoning is not needed.
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