indented, so as to resemble the edge of a semicircular saw; hence, when the oral disc is fixed upon the skin, the edges of these little saws are brought in contact with it, and so worked by the muscular fibres in the midst of which they are implanted, as to divide the skin and capillary vessels, from which the blood is sucked by means of a strong and very apparent muscular action, so as gradually to fill the stomach and its appendages. We say appendages, because the stomach is provided with a range of sacculi on each side, to which we shall presently advert more explicitly. The stomach is a capacious sac, so extremely dilatable, as, when filled, to enlarge the animal to several times its ordinary bulk. It is of an elongated form, running for about two-thirds down the entire length of the animal, and is also of considerable diameter; internally it is divided by eight membranous septa into compartments, which however freely communicate with each other. In each compartment are two lateral orifices, (one on each side,) leading into sac-like appendages of an elongated form, and bluntly pointed at the apex. These sacculi enlarge gradually from the first downwards; but the last are of extraordinary size, and nearly fill the space between the muscular parietes, and the short intestinal canal. The use of these sacculi is not well ascertained. Some regard them as appendages for the increase of the digestive cavity, or as reservoirs for containing food, while that with which the stomach itself is filled is undergoing the process of digestion; and certain it is, that when the leech is gorged with blood, these sacculi are not only filled, but greatly distended. On the contrary, other anatomists regard them as organs for the secretion of various fluids necessary for digestion, and analogous to the salivary and biliary fluids of higher animals. A query here arises, whether blood is the natural aliment (with other things) of the leech. Blood taken into the stomach of this animal does not appear to undergo digestion, but will remain red and without alteration, as Cuvier says, for several weeks, ("pendant plusieurs semaines ;") indeed, when a leech is distended with blood, it generally dies, as if from the effects of inordinate repletion, unless indeed the greater portion of it be regurgitated through the mouth. Besides, in its natural abodes, the opportunity of | indulging its appetite for blood, as far, at least, as that of warm-blooded vertebrate animals is concerned, must be of extremely rare occurrence; and, moreover, this appetite is only exhibited by two, or perhaps three species, so that it is not perhaps going too far to say, that it is given, not with a view so much to the good of the animals themselves, as for the benefit of man, at least as far as the present species is concerned.* Much indeed has been said of the blood-thirsty appetite of the horse leech, and probably not without foundation; its wounds are also asserted to be sometimes dangerous; nevertheless, as Cuvier well remarks, "the diversity of opinions respecting the power of the horse leech (Homopis sanguisorba, Savi.) to draw blood, is not a little singular. Linneus says that, nine are able to kill a horse. Messrs. Huzard and Pelletier, on the contrary, in a memoir presented to the Institute (of France) and inserted in the Journal de Pharmacie,' March, 1825, assert, that it attacks no vertebrate animal whatsoever. M. Blainville, however, hints that they have mistaken for the horse leech, a nearly allied species, the black leech, (la sangsue noire) which he makes the type of a distinct genus, termed Pseudobdella, and of which the mouth has only folds of skin, without any teeth; a more accurate examination is therefore necessary. Both species of leech devour earth worms with avidity.” To return to the medicinal leech: the small dimensions of the intestinal canal, compared with the magnitude of the stomach, is very remarkable, and proves the carnivorous propensities of the animal; at least, if we are to be guided by analogy. Its course is nearly straight, and, on each side, at some distance from each other are two small glandular bodies, the uses of which are not understood. The stomach with its appen *It is a remarkable fact, that certain leeches of Chili are terrestrial, living in the woods, and never in the water. M. Gay states, that he could not make a botanical excursion, without having his legs bitten by these blood-suckers. They crawl upon plants, along trunks of trees, and ascend shrubs, but never approach marshes or rivers. The only one which M. Gay discovered in these latter localities, is a very small kind, belonging to the genus Branchiobdella, which has the singular habit of living in the pulmonary cavity of a gasteropodous shelled mollusc, (Auricula Dombeii;) and he also found at Santiago another species of the same genus, living under the branchiæ of a species of lobster. In Europe, a species (Branchiobdella astaci) lives on the branchiæ of the crayfish. In their sylvan manners, there are leeches in Ceylon, which agree with those of Chili. See Mag. of Zool. and Bot. vol. i. p. 414. glandular bodies on each side, lying be- | tween the last two sacculi. e is the oral disc, with the eyes and teeth. f is the caudal disc. The leech is provided with a nervous system, and this system is ganglionic; that is, made up of knots, or ganglia, connected by intervening nervous threads: of these ganglia thus connected together, twenty-four or twenty-five are seated in a line down the abdominal surface of the body, from the oesophagus to the caudal extremity. From these ganglia, or nervous centres, fibres are distributed to the body; but the first, or œsophagical ganglion, consisting of two united nodules, forms a heart-shaped mass larger than the rest, and sends off a nervous thread, which encircles the gullet, and joins two very minute ganglia, situated upon the back or dorsal aspect of the oral orifice; and it is from these two little points that the oral disc receives its nerves of sensation, and the eyes those of vision. The characters of this nervous system of ganglia, and the nature of the esophagal ganglion with its nervous circle, and minute ganglia giving fibrils to the oral disc and eyes, will be understood by reference to the accompanying slight sketch. It has been already stated, that the leech belongs to the class of red-blooded worms, or annelida: hence it is to be inferred, that there is a circulatory system, for the due distribution of the vital fluid. There is, however, no heart; it is by the agency of contractile vessels only that this is effected. Anatomists have described four large longitudinal trunks or vessels, of which two are mesian, one running down the centre of the back, the other down the centre of the abdomen: the other two are lateral, one on each side, and appear to be connected with the respiratory apparatus. The central dorsal vessel answers the purpose of an aorta, and receiving the blood aerated by the lateral vessels, distributes it to the general system: the abdominal vessel serves as a venous reservoir, collecting the blood after its circulation through the minute arteries, and returning it partly to the dorsal vessel, but chiefly to the two lateral vessels, for the purpose of becoming again aerated. The movement of the blood in the two lateral vessels is independent of that in in the organization, not only of this animal, but of all living bodies, and which attest, or rather indeed demonstrate, the power and goodness of God, is scarcely necessary. It is especially, when the naturalist investigates the structure of animals, and their express adaptation for their appointed modes of life; when he examines their anatomy, and discovers its beauty and propriety, that he is led to exclaim, "How wonderful are thy works, in wisdom hast MAN IS RESPONSIBLE. M. THE usual preliminary of a discussion, namely, the definition of the principal term in question, is, in the present instance, attended with an incidental difficulty, not to be surmounted without virtually affirming what has been alleged to require proof. But then, this same difficulty attaches to every argument concerning the great principles of human nature; inasmuch as the mere fact that human language furnishes terms whereby such faculties may be defined and described, is a substantial proof of their reality. the mesian vessels, and varies in its | the skill and wisdom which are displayed course; the current sometimes being from the head of the animal to the caudal extremity in one vessel, whence it passes into the other, which it ascends; sometimes the reverse. Between all the great vessels there is a free communication. The aërating, or respiratory apparatus, consists of a series of lateral sacculi, or little membranous pouches, opening externally by small orifices for the admission of water; on each side there are seventeen of these sacs, composed of a highly vascular mem-thou made them all!" brane, so delicate as to permit the action of the oxygen of the water upon the blood. The vascular network, which is spread over each sacculus, is derived from the lateral vessels of its own side, which gives off two branches for the supply of each; first a simple straight, or nearly straight branch; and secondly, a thick, muscular and singularly tortuous branch, highly irritable, but with its canal extremely narrow. This singular tortuous artery, with its thick parietes, was for a long time regarded as a glandular body, of unknown use; and it is but recently that its true character has been ascertained. It is not, however, in these respiratory sacculi only that the blood of the leech is aërated; the surface of the body itself, covered, as we have stated, by a very fine cuticle, is furnished with a network of innumerable minute vessels, and the blood as it circulates through them is subjected to the action of the oxygen of the medium in which the animal habitually resides. The leech, or at least the medicinal leech, is aquatic; but it can live for a considerable period exposed to the atmosphere; and, under these circumstances, it is probable that the aëration of the blood is confined to that in the cutaneous capillaries, at least as long as the skin continues defended with its mucous secretion. Some leeches, however, are exclusively terrestrial, as has been already noticed respecting those of Chili and Ceylon; and an European species (Geobdella trochetii) lives as much on the land as in the water; leaving the latter in order to pursue the earth worm, on which it feeds. If, for example, it were asked, Is man a rational animal?-the contrary being pretended, and if the advocate of so whimsical a paradox were required to make us understand, by definitions, or circumlocutions, or by equivalents, drawn from other languages, what it is precisely of which he means to despoil humanity; in merely stating his objection, he must answer it; or at least supply all the materials necessary for his own refutation. The fact that every language of civilized men comprises a large class of words and phrases dependent one upon another for their meaning, and related, closely or remotely, to a certain property, or function of human nature, and which terms we can by no means dispense with in describing man, as he is distinguished from the terrestrial orders around him, this fact, attaching universally to the vehicle of thought, affords all the proof which a strict logic would grant in reply to the Other minutiæ in the structure of the sophism. Language, when combined leech might be entered into; enough, in continuous discourse, may indeed, however, has been said to convey a and too often does, convey notions toclear idea of its general organization-tally false and absurd; but language the object of our immediate aim. itself, which is at once the engine of To call the attention of the reader to cogitation, and the record of all facts permanently or incidentally attaching to human nature; language, the least falfacious of historians, which, while it notes the revolutions of empires, is the enduring type of the visible world, and the shadow of the invisible-the mirror of the universe, as known to man, language never lies: how should it do so; seeing that it is itself the creature and reflection of nature? As well deny that the trees, buildings, rocks, and clouds, painted on the bosom of a tranquil lake are images of realities, as well do this, as assume that language, in the abstract, has ever belied humanity, or presented any elements foreign to our constitution. Philosophers or teachers may have affirmed, and the multitude may have believed, far more than could be proved; meantime, the vehicle they have employed in defining and promulgating such illusions, has faithfully embodied the permanent verities of philosophy and religion; just as a wonder-loving traveller, while he tells a thousand tales of griffins and dragons, sets us right by the dumb testimony of the specimens he has brought with him. Men might as easily create to themselves a sixth sense, as fabricate, and retain in use a system of terms, having no archetypes in nature. And what is true of language generally, respecting human nature at large, is true in particular of the language of each race, respecting its particular characteristics, and even its history. For example, were we, as some have done, to reject, as a tissue of arrogant fables, what we learned at school concerning the early conquests of the Roman people; and if Livy were dismissed as a mere romancer, yet, in taking up the Latin language, as a whole, and in running through its vocabulary, and in considering its idioms, we should find no room left for a question, whether the people to whom the language of Livy, Sallust, Tacitus, was vernacular, were a military people: is it possible to believe them to have been the inert cultivators of the soil, or a nation of shopkeepers? Let the entire Roman history be repudiated; yet give us only the Roman language, and we should readily recover, from that source alone, an authentic record of those successive triumphs, which at length made the Cesars the lords of the world. Aristotle may have taught a false system of the universe, and Plato may have dreamed in politics and morals; but can we turn over the pages of a Greek lexicon, and affect to doubt whether the Greek mind was of philosophic cast? With the Greek language before us, in its mere words and idioms, we want no historians, we want no poets, we want no marbles, we want no temples, to assure us that the race of men using that tongue, were, in mind and taste, all that historians, poets, marbles, temples, show them to have been. And it deserves particularly to be noted, that, while the languages of civilized races at large furnish evidence on all points touching man's nature, physical, intellectual, and moral, so those especial refinements, which characterize this or that language, and which have resulted from the eminent attainments of the people using it, serve to exhibit that one rudiment of human nature as we might say magnified, and its inner structure expanded. It is not in the rude speech of nomadic hordes, or in the talk of the fish eaters of a desolate shore, that we are to look for the record of the genuine rudiments of human nature; but rather in the copiousness of tongues which have conveyed the choicest refinements of those rudiments. Were it questioned whether man be an imaginative being, formed to catch analogies, and to be charmed with resemblance; three-fourths of every language, barbarous or civilized, attests the fact; nor is this evidence touched by any instances of what may be false in taste, or factitious, in the literature of the people. Or is the question, "Am I responsible-am I a moral agent-am I to be held accountable for my temper, dispositions, and conduct; and am Í so constituted as that a future retribution will be a fit issue of my present course of life?" If this be the question, it is answered at once concisely, and conclusively, by simply appealing to the mere words that must be employed to express it. But if, on any account, we should think it well seriously to go into controversy with one propounding so strange a doubt, it could be thought nothing more than reasonable to require him to spread out so formidable a query in some variety of terms. We should ask him then to favour us with synonymes, and equivalents; and to set his difficulty clear of ambiguity, by a liberal adduction of instances and illustrations. I not to contradict the Divine attributes: Who could decline so equitable a request? If we suppose, then, our objector to have complied; he stands convinced at least, if his mind have been trained to habits of logical inquiry, he will not fail to see that, in describing the moral nature, with the intent to deny it, he has unwittingly affirmed it; and we might say to him, "More convincing than any syllogisms, or than any discursive argument, in proof of the reality of that moral scheme which you call in question, are the words (considered as products of the human mind) to which you have been compelled to have recourse in enouncing your scepticism. The system we live under is, in fact, a moral system in the highest sense; because among all people with whom human nature has been at all expanded, a copious vocabulary of terms is found, to which no sense could be assigned in a world of beings, either purely animal, or purely intellectual. If man be not a moral agent, and if his sphere in this respect do not immeasurably transcend that of the sentient orders around him, how comes he to talk as if he were? If, in regard to a moral system, he be only a brute of finer form, born of the earth and returning to it, whence is it that, in respect of virtue and vice, of good and evil, the dialect of heaven rolls over his lips? When was it, and how, that he stole the vocabulary of the skies? You may choose to say, That men's notions of virtue and vice are, and ever have been, contorted; that they have been used to call good evil, and evil good. You may say, That the notions attached to these terms are variable, and the terms themselves convertible; you may say, That conscience is a fallacious adviser; that notions of honour impel men to acts of shame; and that reward and punishment fall as often inversely, as directly, upon merit and demerit. Or you may affirm, That man's actual position, creature of circumstances as he is, and yet held responsible, is severe, undesirable, and melancholy in its consequences. You may say this, or more of the sort; and yet you cannot even murmur your complaints, without establishing the very principles on the ground of which, first, a moral system may be incontestably proved; and, secondly, the actual moral system shown and, clearly you can never affirm it to be unjust to treat man as responsible for his dispositions and actions, without virtually admitting every postulate of the most refined moral science; for, plainly, there can be no injustice within a system which admits of no justice: there can be no cruelty, where there might not be goodness; nor could any abstractions of this order have been named, or discoursed of, except in a community of beings, who, in fact, are conversant with whatever necessitates the inference that they are held accountable to supreme justice, and will hereafter be reckoned with. Certain modes of treatment may be severe, only on the supposition-that they have place in a system which would have admitted lenient modes of treatment; and such a system, by the very statement, is abstractedly good; it is a benevolently constructed system, and therefore the conception of a benevolent mind.—Isaac Taylor. VILLAGE CHARACTERS.-No. I. THE ATHEIST. "Are there still more amazing-who resist Of instinct, reason, and the world against them SON of song, there are! And they say, moreover, in their blindness, that the substance of the world existed from all eternity; and that all parts of it being in motion, after various trials, so assembled themselves together, as to form the beautiful world exhibited to our view. They say, further, that men sprang like mushrooms out of the mud and slime of the earth; and that their thoughts, and what is called soul, are only the various actions and repercussion of small particles of matter. Again, they say of the system of this beautiful world, that it is composed of nought else but matter and motionmatter, dividing itself into such and such a figure; and motion, directing into such and such tracks, and turnings, and deviations, that they dance about at will, and yet keeping due order; while there is no God to superintend them, or |