MONTHLY OBSERVATIONS, FEBRUARY. THE general character of the weather in this Month, is much more variable than that of January; for though at times the thermometer may mark as great a degree of cold, it is of shorter continuance, and with more considerable intervals; whilst thick mists, rain, and high winds, render it unpleasant to such as, from business, are compelled to expose themselves to the air. Animals, however, and particularly the inhabitants of the air, find the benefit of the change; no longer pinched with cold, they are able to search with vigour after the worms, slugs, and insects, which now begin to creep from their hiding places; and hence, they derive so much strength and spirits, as, before the end of the month, to resume all the alacrity of Spring; and their joy is expressed by commencing their long-forgotten song. The music of birds, it is well known, is an acquired language, for though each species has a song peculiar to itself, it is only because each succeeding race has been carefully instructed by its progenitors; and if the young of one kind be brought up by another, they acquire the song of their foster parent, without any mixture of the notes of their own species. What ideas we may suppose the feathered race to affix to the notes they so profusely utter, is a curious subject, of which, perhaps, by attentive research, more might be discovered than philosophers have suspected. It appears that the largest bird that is known to sing, is the Holly Thrush, (Turdus Viscivorus.) About the same time also, birds commence the work of raising an offspring; and in this country the crow kind commence this labour the most early. The Raven seeks a retired place, and fixes its solitary nest No. 24.-VOL. III. [1821. either in a lofty tree, or in a craggy cliff, inaccessible to men; the Rook, on the contrary, comes near our habitations, and, colonizing the grove, associates itself with our ideas of rural happiness. It is pleasing to observe their industry and skill in carrying on this necessary labour; how busily they are employed in breaking off the twigs from the summits of the trees, and conveying them in their bills to their aerial edifice; where the partner at the same time continues on the watch, lest any of its sharp-sighted neighbours should make free with the materials, and appropriate them to their own purposes. But, though the nest of the Rook be perhaps the most familiarly known, that of the Magpie may be regarded as more curious. Building in trees of no great elevation, and commencing its labour when no leaves have appeared to afford concealment, it has recourse to the formidable arrangement of its materials to ensure its safety. The twigs selected are usually those of thorn; which are formed into the body of the nest, and also into a close covering, so that the bird is obliged to creep between the projecting spines to enter its habitation. The school-boy, after bathing his hands in blood, is often obliged to leave the eggs, or young ones, as he found them. About this time those quadrupeds which have been lying in a half torpid state during the cold weather, shew signs of activity. The Mole, the miner of the soil, exerts itself in pursuit of earthworms, and throws up hillocks of fine earth as it passes under ground. Destitute as would appear the lot of this animal, its almighty Maker has admirably fitted its organization to its habits. It has no projecting parts to prevent or retard its progress beneath the earth; its fur is short and smooth, and dirt cannot attach itself to it; the bones of its body allow of its moving through narrow passages, for it has two ribs less than most animals; and that system of bones to which the H 107 Essays on Creation and Geology. thighs are attached, and which together form what is called the pelvis, is much less than in other quadrupeds; whilst the anterior extremities are peculiarly adapted to the purpose of clearing its way. Eyes are not much wanted; and accordingly they are small, and well covered by the fur; but they suit every purpose of necessity, by warning the creature of too near an approach to light. The Badger now ventures more frequently from its hiding-place; and the Squirrel and Dormouse have recourse to the hoard of nuts and acorns which they had gathered together against such a time as this. This is the spawning time of the fish of the genus Gadus; of these, more particularly, the Ling approach within three or four leagues of land, and are taken in vast numbers. If the spawn of this fish were all to attain to maturity, the ocean would not contain them; but they are devoured by the numerous inhabitants of the deep, and even by those of their own genus. But few insects are added to those which we noticed in January: a few Flies are seen in the windows, and a Moth may be discovered here and there, as if born out of due time. The vegetable tribes, before the end of the month, have shewn unequivocal signs of life. Buds are everywhere swelling with the circulating fluid; and a few, as the Gooseberry, acquire a slight tint of green; the Oak and Beech, which through the winter bore their nut-brown leaves still hanging on them, are now quite naked, the leafstalk of the last year being thrust off by the swelling bud. In fact, these trees may be considered as half evergreen; for they differ from plants thus denominated only in the colour of the leaves, and not in their duration. The Laurel, Holly, and others of a similar nature, cast off their old foliage, for the purpose of acquiring new; and the Ivy, the beauty of which would attract admiration, if it were rare, is employed in ripening its berries. The catkins of the Willow are now added to the golden drapery of the Hazel that adorns every hedge. Come into flower: Snowdrop, Galanthus nivalis; Common Chickweed, Stellaria media; Henbit Archangel, Lamium amplexicaulis; Bearsfoot, Helleborus foetidus; Spring Crocus, C. Vernus. Catkins of the Willow begin to appear. 108 ESSAYS ON CREATION AND GEOLOGY. ESSAY X.-The Creation of Man, on the latter part of the Sixth Day. have traced the Mosaic account of the In the course of this investigation, we Creation from its commencement to the formation of the animal kingdom; and have observed an admirable and intimate connection between its various parts. a chasm in the system, a want of someBut there still appears thing to crown it with the character of perfection. It has animation, but it wants intelligence,-which want is supplied by the creation of Man. inferior creatures to have existed for The hypothesis which supposes the ages previous to the creation of man, is exceedingly preposterous. While the Mosaic account leads to no such conclusion, but the opposite, it must be insisted on, that such an important article can never be established on such a slender foundation as that of the situation in which some remains of human bodies have been found in the earth. Admitting that the remains of the human species in certain places, have been found to occupy the uppermost or very newest alluvial soil; does it follow that this is to be a criterion to determine the actual or relative period when they were first called into existence? So far from this, that it does not even prove it as a general fact, that remains of the human species, when the subject comes to be more fully investigated, shall not be found in a similar situation and state to that in which the various remains of animals have been discovered. hands, that the subject of geological I believe it is acknowledged on all science is yet in its infancy; and therefore, it is time enough to draw conclusions when the subject has been more thoroughly investigated. To insist that fossil human remains do not exist at all, because in France, Cuvier, forsooth, did not discover any along with those of animals, would is no such place as America, because be something like insisting that there it cannot be discovered on the continent of Europe. Cross the Atlantic, and you will find the one; and examine the whole globe, and you shall perhaps find the other. No one can say with precision how far the human spe 109 Essays on Creation and Geology. 110 all its appendages, I ask what character of wisdom is manifested by this preposterous scheme? Whereas the Mosaic account is most rational in every respect. Not only is it a display of the power, but of the wisdom, of the Creator. It shews him to be at once intelligent and rational. It discovers an end, a rational and imme cies traversed the globe in the old world; but in the vast continent of Asia, which it is supposed they principally inhabited, what measures have been adopted to ascertain this fact? Excepting a few districts in Europe, where have men employed themselves in such investigations? And even here, have not some few facts occasionally occurred, as to render the hy-diate end, to be obtained by the opepothesis doubtful? rations of his hands. But this end did not consist in merely forming the earth, the sea, and the dry land-in stocking it with vegetables, setting over it the celestial influence, and in creating myriads of living creatures to subsist on it: no, there was a higher and nobler end in view. The globe thus richly furnished was still incomplete. It wanted a head, a rational head or sovereign, to whom all the inferior tribes of creatures should yield obedience. How long then shall it remain without this head? The visionary philosopher will tell you that it must have been long, long indeed; for in the chambers of his imagery he thinks he has discovered pile upon pile, and stratum upon stratum, of the productions of the earth, all ordered and arranged like some cabinet or grotto, before man came to be its inhabitant. He will bid you look upon its surface, and then tell you to trace your original in its very newest alluvial soil. He will turn aside this, and bid you look a little deeper, and ask you if you do not see what races were before you? And by the help of his fancy, he will carry you out of this world entirely, into another which he supposes existed prior thereto, but concerning the origin of which he can say nothing, where were animals and even vegetables perfectly different from any which now exist, or which have existed since man came to have a being in the world. When you ask Surely no one will maintain the hypothesis to be rational, that, because all sorts of animals have not been found in one and the same bed in any particular place, therefore all sorts of animals did not exist at one and the same time on the face of the globe. This would be like maintaining, that, if at this moment people be living in England, for the same reason none can be living in France. It would go, in short, to disprove every general fact, and to circumscribe our views of the operations of nature in the most irrational and absurd manner that can be conceived, An earthquake occurs, and swallows up a particular district of the globe, suppose it a desert, inhabited only by wild beasts, or a city, like Lisbon, which is the habitation of man; and suppose, that in a far distant age some bright genius, as M. Cuvier, were to arise, and to subject the remains of such a catastrophe to geological investigation, would he, in the first case, be warranted to say, that because nothing was to be found but the remains of wild beasts, therefore nothing but wild beasts then existed on the face of the globe? Or, in the other, that because nothing was to be found but the ruins of a city, therefore all the world was once a city? Would this mode of reasoning make either for or against the fact, that, for aught he knew, notwithstanding these appearances, the world may have been the same when these occurrences hap-him how he comes to conclude matters pened, that it is at the present day? Might not other species of brute animals, and even human beings, have existed in other parts of the world which were not affected by this convulsion? And might not other places be without cities, as at the present day, though in the catastrophe we trace the ruins only of a city? to have been really so,-he will take a bone, or a small fragment of a bone, (for to a person of his sagacity, the one or the other is the same thing,) and from this bone, or fragment of bone, he will construct an animal, delineate its several parts and proportions; but observe, always taking care by his sleight of hand and cunning crafti Let us beware of banishing ration-ness, to make such a caricature upon ality from the system of the world. If to the infinitely wise God, is to be ascribed the creation of the world and nature, that it shall not resemble any of nature's present productions; and this caricature of his, he will foist into |