ican enables him to
bear the exposure to a tropical sun, which would destroy an European.
But this is not sufficient, we must examine further. Sir Humphry Davy
has given us a very interesting account of a small animal found in the
pools of water in the caves in Carniola; this animal is called the
_Proteus Anguinus_ or Syren: it is a species of eel with two feet--a
variety only to be found in these caves--it lives in darkness, and
exposure to the light destroys it. Now, here is an animal which we must
either suppose to have been created at the universal creation--and that
is to suppose that these caves and pools of water have also existed from
the time of the creation--or that the principle of vitality has been
permitted, at a later date, to take that form and those attributes
congenial to its situation: it is a curious problem. Again, it is well
known that in the continent of New Holland there are animals who have a
property peculiar to that continent alone--that of a pouch or false
stomach, to contain their young after their birth; it has been surmised
that at one time the major part of that continent was under water, and
that this pouch was supplied to them for the safety of their young; nor
is this conjecture without strong grounds; if only the kangaroo and
opossum tribes, which are animals peculiarly indigenous to that
continent, were supplied with this peculiar formation, the conjecture
would fall to the ground, as it might fairly be said that this property
was only another proof of the endless variety in creation; but the most
remarkable fact is, that not only the kangaroo and opossum, animals
indigenous and peculiar to that portion of the globe, but that very
variety of squirrel, rat, and mouse, which in every other respect are of
the same species as those found in the other continents, are all of them
provided with this peculiar false pouch to contain their young. Why,
therefore, should all these have been supplied with it, if not for a
cause? And the question now arises, whether at the first creation they
had that pouch, or were permitted so far to change their formation, when
the pouch became necessary for the preservation and continuation of
these species? That these changes are the changes of centuries, I
grant, and therefore are not likely to be observed by man, whose records
or whose knowledge are not permitted to be handed down beyond a certain
extent. Knowledge is not happiness; and when the accumul