made me so late this morning? A very general look of assent was the result of this inquiry. Mr. Sandford proceeded—“A singular and most unexpected circumstance has happened to me. John Simpson and William Wood came to my counting-house this morning, and said if I were at leisure they wished to speak to me on business of consequence. Their looks were so full of importance, that I could not refuse. They then told me that old Richardson, the man from whom I have rented that field containing the valuable stratum of coal for so many years, is dead, and has left me all his property, except a small sum to each of themselves as executors. After enjoying my surprise, they brought to my recollection what John had told me of the old man's intentions when I first agreed to take his field upon a lease. I thought nothing of it at the time, and I do not think it has ever entered my head since. "I was much amused, as I came along, to see what an excitement this news has caused. One after another rushed breathless out of their houses, with a Sir, do you know old Richardson's dead, and has left you all his money?' One man was actually at the trouble of running a considerable distance to overtake me, in order to give me P. Now, Willie, what may you learn from this? W. I may learn that if I should ever grow up to be a man of business, I must try and be as honest as I can. P. And you may remember the THE bird that soars on highest wing, What honour hath humility. The saint that wears heaven's brightest crown, In deepest adoration bends; The weight of glory bows him down, Then most, when most his soul ascends: Nearest the throne itself must be The footstool of humility.—JAMES MONTGOMERY. 349 Ion. Yes, mamma, they do not seem to be much alike. A boy is not like a bat. W. And a cameleopard has a shape different from the mole's, at the same time it is rather larger. L. So, too, the hippopotamus is a different-looking Mammal from the hedgehog. But when we make the divisions what are we to call them-Sub-classes? M. No. Orders. The Animal Kingdom is divided into subkingde 1-a sub-kingdom is di vided into classes-and a class is divided into orders. W. And how is an order divided? M. Ah, that is not a proper question. We shall find that out in the proper time. But how are we to arrange this class Mammals into orders? Ion. We cannot tell yet, mamma. We arrange the Vertebrated Animals according to their limbs -blood-covering and their young. But all these animals have four limbs, warm blood, and so on. So I suppose we cannot arrange them according to these four points? M. We shall see. Let us stop a minute and think. It is very important that you should find out what is the proper and natural way to arrange them. W. I suppose that by natural you mean the way in which God has arranged them. M. Yes. We will talk about that by-and-bye. You know that to arrange these Mammals into orders we must find out some fresh points in which a certain number of them may be alike. You understand that, I suppose. W. Yes, I should think that we all understand that, mamma; but the question is, I suppose, which parts of the animals are we to notice. M. Yes; that is the questionthey may be alike in so many different ways, you know. Many of them are alike in colour. Put all the brown ones in a row, and then the black ones, then a row of white ones, or spotted ones--just as Bonaparte with his soldiers made one regiment with red coats, and another with blue coats-arrange them according to their colour. W. Ah! but then, now I think about it, we should make some very curious classes. For in stance Ion. No. I'll give you an instance. The white bear, the white mouse, and the white sheep-they would be in the white class. L. Or we should put together the black bison, the black bat, or the brown horse, and the brown squirrel. M. That would never do-so you can tell at once, by their being so different, that they were not intended to be arranged thus. Ion. Ah! I'll tell you something you may arrange them according to their size-that is a good thought—and then you would have W. No! You gave me an instance last time,—just let me give you one-and then you would have-now listen!-then you would have the wolf-and the sheep!the lion-and the deer!-the cat -and the rabbit!-and after that -that is, after they had been placed together for a day or two, you would have-half of them!for the one half would have been eaten up by their class mates. And then, as mamma said just now, we could tell by their being so different that they were not intended to be arranged so. M. Yes. And you might try many other ways of arranging (for there are many other differences), but none of them might be right. You might arrange them according to the similitude* in their tails, or the resemblance in the initials of their names-first, order A, ape, armadillo, ass, ant-eaterthen, order B-order C-and so on. Or, you might make orders just as they make classes in school. Those who understand best, in the 1st class-those who are rather foolish, in the 4th class-and those who are perfectly stupid and cannot read at all, in the last class. L. Then, in that class they would all go-and we should be no better off than before-except that we should get rid of mankind -they would be in the 1st class. But, dear mamma, how are we to arrange them? what is the use of telling us how they must not be arranged? M. A great deal of "use"-I want to show you how many mistakes we may make, and how careful we must be to find the proper way. Men have been a long time finding out the natural way of arranging animals. I have some books, where they are arranged in a very curious manner, which men say now is "quite wrong." Then, I suppose that the natural way-the way in which God has arranged them-is the proper way, mamma? Of course, that must be the best way-but then, how are men to find that out? God has not told them, I suppose. M. By thinking-God tells us many things when we think. Suppose that we set to work and think, ourselves. The elephant, the boy, the bat, and others are very different. Now, the question isWhat can be the reason of these differences?-There is no doubt that the all-wise Creator had a reason for every little difference you see in these animals-in their shape, or colour, or size. We shall never find out all His reasonsbut, as we want to arrange the animals according to His plan, we must try to discover some of them. Let us begin You are made to think;-but the lower animals, one might sometimes think, if we did not now how useful they are to man, that they were made on purpose to eat. When a sheep awakes in the morning it begins to eat, and continues eating grass and chewing the cud all day long-that is all it seems to live for. one, the last one. I wonder what that one would do! W. Why, it would eat itself, of course. Ion. No, it would not like to do that. No-no—I'll tell you what it would do;—it would make young ones and eat them.* M. No, Ion, that would not do. It appears clearly to me that if they were all fed on the same food, they would soon be starved. So, we find that the Creator who has made them, and undertakes to feed them, gives them different food. Some feed on grass and herbs. W. Some, mamma, on flesh. Now, think again. Not only the sheep, but all the other Mammals, eat, and how many of them must there be in this world! Think of the Mammals on the mountains, plains, deserts, trees, and rivers, and that every morning when the old sun rises with his yellow light, these thousands and thousands of Mammals rise with him. They all wake up to be fed-and, when L. And some (such as the elethe sun goes down in the even-phant, the giraffe, and others) ing, other Mammals come out for eat the young leaves and twigs of their food also. And all these the trees. animals expect to be fed every day. Now, who will find the food for them? L. GOD will, mamma. M. Suppose, then, that God were o say, "They shall all be fed alike." "Grass is a very good food-the sheep like it-they shall all eat grass." W. Oh, the world couldn't grow enough grass, mamma!-unless more fields were made; and then there would not be enough, it would soon be all gone. M. Or, if they were all to be fed on insects, just as the mole is. Ion. Then of course there would not be enough. I wonder how many flies the lion would eat for dinner, or whether he would claw them up singly—perhaps he would prefer them hashed! M. Or, if they were all made to live on animal food? L. Then, they would soon eat each other up-at least, all except Ion. Some on fruits of trees anc nuts. W. While some animals will eat all kinds of food. M. Let us remember these things, then : 1st, Food seems to be one of the principal objects for which they live. 2ndly, They have different kinds of food. 3rdly, As they eat such different kinds of food, they have to procure their foods from different places. A monkey, for instance, has to procure its food on the trees-while a cow grazes on the land. Suppose the order of things The author begs to apologize for some of these unseemly remarks, by saying that they, as well as many others in the book, are the actual expressions of the children to whom these lessons have been given in school. He does not, therefore, like to erase them, even though they may not be "quite proper." to be changed suddenly, and the cow has to get her food upon the trees. L. She could not, mamma, because she has no hands to grasp the branches-she could not hold on with her hoofs. M. Then let a dog come and seek his food there. W. But he could not climbhe has only paws. M. Then suppose the Mammals called whales were to take the monkey's place. L. They could not get up-they have only fins to move with. M. Then suppose a lion were to come, he would say, "I can live in the monkey's place!" He would climb up the cocoa-nut trees, and seize the large cocoanuts with his claws-but, then, poor fellow, when he put them to his mouth, he could not crack them. He would find that his teeth are made long and pointed, and very sharp for tearing and cutting animals' flesh. So he would say to the first monkey he met up there grinning at him, "I say, friend, this won't do, for I cannot get on. I find that we are not only different in our limbs, with which we get our food, but we have different teeth for eating our food. So I'll wish you good day." No! let every animal be in its proper place, then you will begin to see why there are these strange differences in their parts. The Cow, who eats the grass on the land, has hoofs. L. The Whale, who eats fishes in the water, has fins. W. The Dog, who runs after animals on land, has paws. M. The Mole, who grubs and digs for worms under the earth, has extremities, something like shovels, or scoops. L. And, mamma, the Bat, who flies about for insects above the earth, has wings. Ion. And the Monkey, who climbs for the fruits on the trees, has hands. M. And when you begin by noticing even the difference only in one part, in their limbs-when you see that while the cow and others have hoofs, others have fins, paws, "scoops," wings, and hands, then you can say -"I think I see now the reason of these differences." W. Yes-Let me say it, mamma, please God has given them different kinds of food-therefore he has made a difference in their limbs, that they may procure this food. M. And there are many more differences in their other parts, which we will try and find out the reason for next week. L. Yes; and I suppose that there are differences in the teeth with which they eat their food. If we could only find out the reasons for all the differences, how much easier it would be to make them into classes! M. And it would be very pleasant, too. It is pleasant to find out the reason for anything, especially of anything made by GOD. |