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Show 140 X A.CLEAY SYSTEM 0-, ted familieo, man alone is competent. In him only i:J tl be found that concentration ·or qualities from all the ot~er g1·oups of his order which has been described as marktng the c01·vidre. That grasping power, which has be~n selected as the leading physical quality of his order, ~s n~where so beautifully or so powerfully developed a~ 1~ h1s hand. The intelligence and teachableness of the strniad~ rise to a clioax in his pre-eminent mental nature. H1s sub-analogy to the ferre is marked by his canine teeth, and the universality of his rapacity, for where is the department of animated nature which he does not without ~cruple sacrifice to his convenience? With sanguinary, he has also gentle and dornesticable dispositions, thus reflecting the characters of the ungulata (the rasorial type of the class,) to which we perhaps see a further analogy in the use which he makes of the surface of the earth as a source of food. To the aquatic type his love of maritime dventure very readily assimilates him; and how far the suctorial is represented in his nature, it is hardly necessary to say. As the corvidre, too, are found in every part of the earth-almost the only one of the inferior animals which has been acknowledged as universal-so do we find man. He thrives in all climates, and with regard to style of li\ring can adapt himself to an infinitely greater diversity of circumstan~es than any other animated creature. Man, then, considered zoologically, and without regard to the distinct characters assigned to him by theology, simply takes his place as the type of all types of the animal kindom, the true and unmistakable head of animated nature upon this earth. It will readily occur, that some more particular investigations into the ranks of types might throw additional light on man's status, and perhaps his nature; and such light y·e may hope to obtain when the philosophy of zoology shall have been studied as it deserves Perhaps some such diagram as the one given on the next page will be found to be an approximation to the expressi9n of the merely natural or secular grade ot man in comparison with other animals. Art'JMAT'l'•:n NATURE 14. |