vi PREFACE.

but equalling, and even surpassing him, in some of his
most boasted endowments: in quickness of sight, as in
the eagle; in swiftness, as in the antelope; and in keenness
of scent and hearing. In constructive power, too, what
architect, after a life of toil and study, can surpass the bee
and the ant, in the perfect adaptation of their edifices
to the wants and the comfort of their inhabitants, or the
beauty and regularity of their structures? Surely, then, if
our Heavenly Father has not disdained to bestow on the
inferior animals, faculties so worthy of our admiration, we.
ought not to neglect or despise the study of so large a
part of His creation. That the observation of the works
of Nature was not neglected by the prophets, poets, and
historians, whose writings form the Scriptures, almost
every page of those interesting and valuable records amply
testifies; the allusions are numberless, and, for the most
part, not only eminently beautiful and poetical, but correct
and graphic in the highest degree.

The book of Psalms and that of Job are replete wi with