CREATION OF FISHES AND FOWLS.

83

there be lights in the firmament of the heaven to divide the day from the night; and let them be for signs, and for seasons, and for days, and for years. And God made two great lights: the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night : he made the stars also."

The vegetable tribes bloomed for one day in unenjoyed beauty and fragrance. But with the next rising sun, two vast classes of animal life, with their varied susceptibilities of pleasure, were summoned into existence. The waters were replenished with all their orders of vitality, from the cold elementary mollusca, to the warm blooded whale. From this period, too, commenced that deposition of marine exuvia on the ocean bed, which afterwards exposed to the eye of day by a mighty revulsion of the waters, have afforded to the fossil student, an exhaustless mine of observation. The winged inhabitants of the air were of coeval birth, and found abundant supplies prepared in the waters and the land, for their respective wants. The eagle now soared on adventurous wing round the naked granitic peaks, the albatross skimmed with unwearied flight the sparkling billow, and all the feathered songsters warbled in unison with the DIVINE benevolence.

Fishes and Fowls are classed together, as the creative work of the fifth day. Apparently these two orders of animals have little or nothing in common, and hence some sciolists have sneered at the collocation of Moses. But the true naturalist admires the scripture classification, because he perceives many fine analogies in it.

Flying modifies all the actions of birds, swimming

those of fishes. In these kindred qualities, both classes stand apart from quadrupeds, and the other land animals. Swimming and flying are, in truth, only the same act performed in different fluids. The effective instruments, organs, and movements, which produce or modify these acts, are similar or at least analogous. From this remarkable relation, we may expect to find many secondary analogies between the habits of fishes and birds. The wing of the bird, and the fin of the fish, differ much less from one another, than might be supposed at first sight; and hence the ancient Greek and Roman naturalists, as well as many in later times, have called them by the same name. Both present a considerable surface relatively to the size of the animal, which it may enlarge or diminish at pleasure. The fin, accommodates itself to these expansions and contractions, because it is composed like the wing, of a soft, flexible, membranous substance; and when it has received the size suited to the immediate want of the animal, it presents like the wing, a resisting surface, it acts with precision, it strikes with force, because, like the instrument of flying, it is stiffened with small cylinders, solid, hard, and nearly inflexible. Though unprovided with feathers, it is sometimes strengthened with scales, that possess the same texture as the feathers of a bird.

The weight of birds does not greatly exceed that of their own bulk of air; the density of fishes is very little different from water, especially that of the sea. Birds are furnished with an organization, which renders a great volume very light. Their lungs are largely developed; great air bags are

ANALOGIES OF FISHES AND FOWLS.

85

placed in the interior of their bodies; their bones are hollow and perforated, so as to receive with ease into their cavities the atmospheric fluid. Almost all fish have a peculiar bladder, which they can expand with air at pleasure, without adding sensibly to their weight.

The tail of birds serves as a rudder, and their wings are perfect oars. The back and belly fins of fish may be also compared to powers which regulate and direct, whilst the tail with its lengthened caudal fin, strikes the water, like an oar, and communicating impulsion to the animal, is the mainspring of all its rapid movements. We may therefore affirm that birds swim in the air, and fishes fly in the water. The atmosphere is the ocean of the first; and the sea that of the second. But fishes enjoy their domain, much more fully than birds; for they can traverse it in every direction;-rise to the very surface, sink into the abyss, or repose themselves in any part of the fluid itself.

The regular winds favour or modify the aerial voyages of birds; the currents of the ocean regulate in like manner the migration of its shoals. The instinct of generation, which can be satisfied only on coasts, constrains fish at each return of spring, to quit the deep ocean, and approach the shores. The females arrive first to deposit on the land-banks the burden of their spawn or eggs, and the males follow to fecundate them. Hence it is obvious, animated the watery

that fishes could not have abyss, which circumfused the globe before the distinction of dry land and ocean existed. Thus we find the Mosaic statement, strictly accordant with

one of the most refined discoveries of Natural History. Wherever the land presents the greatest extent and variety of surface to the sea, there the fishes most abound. It is for this reason, that the great southern ocean is much more sparingly stocked with fish than our northern seas.'

The rural scene garnished with luxuriant herbage, was peopled in the beginning of the 6th day with its animal tribes, from the reptile to the elephant; and then Man, the lord of all the earth, was made in the image, and after the likeness of his Divine CREATOR. Endowed with the faculties and desires of celestial beings, and ordained to exercise a beneficent dominion over all terrestrial natures, he reflected visibly in his thoughts and actions, the Invisible Majesty of Heaven. How nobly does the sacred historian describe the excellence of the finished creation, which in its physical frame at least, has yet lost none of its original brightness, and is therefore equally fitted, as at first, to fill the contemplative mind with holy aspirations! All its parts display so clearly the work of an almighty hand, as to impress moral and religious sentiments, on every unperverted naturalist. "There is no speech nor language where their voice is not heard," pronouncing in reason's ear the primeval benediction. "And GoD saw every thing that he had made, and behold it was very good." "Then the morning stars sang together, and the sons of God shouted for joy."

The achievement of creation, by distinct and

• Lacepede.

PRIMEVAL STATE OF MAN.

87

independent acts, was performed on each of six successive days; demonstrating that it was not the result of a blind necessity, or a spontaneous, and therefore continuous, though irregular aggregation of chaotic atoms. It is thus kindly revealed, that the Deity operating with a sovereign liberty, directs his Almighty Fiat, where and when it seemeth good. As in making the world by his volition alone, he shows that nothing can resist his power, so in forming it, at several periods, he proves that he is the sole disposer of matter in all its modes of existence.

To the well being of man, the activity of his powers is essential. A lesson of daily industry is clearly inculcated in the recital of the six demiurgic or creative days; and a lesson of devout meditation is as plainly taught on the seventh, the day of rest, blessed and sanctified by GoD himself. By these alternate employments, bodily and intellectual, secular and religious, man, while obedient to his Heavenly Monitor, reached the highest perfection of his nature. His knowledge was co-extensive with his dominion; and charity was paramount over all. The properties of every terrestrial object seem to have been intuitively recognised. Thus when the subject animals passed with meek aspect in review before him, he discerned the nature of each, and denoted it by a significant appellation. "And whatsoever Adam called every living creature, that was the name thereof." The garden of Eden in all its luxuriance of foliage, flowers, and fruit, was consigned to his care. Being appointed to dress it, and keep it, he must evidently have possessed a knowledge of the habits and qualities of plants.