Creature

“ In whatever way it originated, and however the huge wonder may have behaved itself at any period, quietly or tremendously, nobody can doubt that the creature is a benevolent creature,—one of the securities of the peaceful and profitable existence of the far greater and more mysterious creature rolling in the shape of an orb round the sun in midst of its countless like, and carrying us all along with it in our respective busy inattentions. ”

“ When we contemplate this grotesque and strangely-formed little creature, and see how wisely and wonderfully it is fashioned and adapted to its destined place, supplying another missing link in the great chain of Nature, we cannot but feel God’s power and omnipresence. ”

“ What a vulgar absurdity to make the name of a species a mere vehicle for the sordid commemoration of some one or other's having been the first to see and slaughter it! What, when we think of any wild creature, do we care to know about that? ”

“ Whether we think of the triumphant flight of birds, reaching a climax in migration, or of the marvel that a creature of the earth--as a mammal essentially is--should evolve such a mastery of the air as we see in bats, or even of the repeated but splendid failures which parachuting animals illustrate, we gain an impression of the insurgence of living creatures in their characteristic endeavour after fuller well-being. ”

“ Now, it is a curious thing, accepted by all visionaries, that a supernatural being, a spirit, fairy, not-human creature, if you see it among animals, beasts and birds, on hills or in the folds of hills, among trees, by waters, in fields of flowers, looks at home and evidently is so. ”

“ I knew one such man, a harmless, half-witted creature, who loved to roam the woods alone by day or night, and whom the wild birds and beasts met with hardly a trace of the fear or suspicion they manifest in presence of other human beings. ”

“ Each creature consists of four representative forms of animal life combined in one, viz. that of the lion, the ox, the eagle, and man, together producing a strange, anomalous figure which is generally thought to personify wild animals, domestic animals, birds, and man, as possessing a common physical life, or created life in its entirety represented by its higher and more notable forms. ”

“ He made study of a single creature an introduction to a whole science, and taught [174] students to regard any form of life not merely as a highly complicated and deeply interesting anatomical study, but as a creature that is only one out of an innumerable host of living things, every fibre in its body, every rhythm in its functions proclaiming the degree and nature of its relationship to other animals. ”

“ The story of the way in which God in His mighty and gracious working prepared earth and sea and sky to be the home of creatures which were yet to be brought forth and created, is very wonderful. But when we read of "the moving creature that hath life," and of "every living creature that moveth," we come to what is still more wonderful. ”

“ These, taken in combination with the qualities or attributes we associate with the creature represented, indicate in a threefold manner the complete idea or phase of meaning intended to be conveyed by the composition, and may be thus formulated:
(1) The Creature.—The primary idea in the symbol is in the particular being represented, whether real or fictitious, as a man, a lion, an eagle, a dragon, &c., of the form and accepted character for some particular quality or [Pg 20] attribute of mind or body, as fierceness, valour, fleetness, &c. ”

“ And why may not several humors be produced as well of other Creatures and parts, as others are produced of them? for all parts of Nature are produced one from another, as being all of one and the same Matter, onely the variation of corporeal motions makes all the difference and variety between them, which variety of motions is impossible to be known by any particular Creature; for Nature can do more then any Creature can conceive. ”

“ The orders of animals are the serpent and the bird: the serpent, in which the breath or spirit is less than in any other creature, and the earth-power greatest; the bird, in which the breath or spirit is more full than in any other creature, and the earth-power least. ”

“ There are so many different composed Parts, and so much of variety of Action in every several Part of one Creature, as 'tis impossible for Human Perception to perceive them; nay, not every Corporeal Motion of one Creature, doth perceive all the varieties of the same Society ”

“ O fairest of Creation, last and best Of all God's works, Creature in whom excelled Whatever can to sight or thought be formed, Holy, divine, good, amiable, or sweet! ”

“ It has already shown us that a world of creatures exists which, although invisible to the eye of man, are possessed of wonderful forms, colour, and beauty of structure, and is daily adding to our knowledge in this direction. We can hardly submit any substances to this marvellous instrument without discovering animal or vegetable life of the most vivid character. ”

“ All natural capacities of a creature are destined to evolve completely to their natural end. ”

“ Constructive and progressive creatures, that we are, with ruling brains, and forming hands, capable of fellowship, and thirsting for fame, can we not contend, in comfort, with the insects of the forest, or, in achievement, with the worm of the sea? ”

“ Of all the Birds in the air, and all the beasts in the field, and all the fishes in the sea, and all the creatures of inferior kind, who pass their lives wholly, or in part, according to their different stages of existence, in air, earth or water, what creature has produced directly or indirectly, the most effect upon mankind?—That, which you Reader, will deserve to be called, if you do not after a minute's reflection answer the question rightly. ”

“ Further, this creature, though destitute of most of the parts which we are accustomed to regard as proper to animals, seems to exercise volition, and to show the same appetites and passions with animals of higher type. ”

“ Beautiful in form and feature, Lovely as the day, Can there be so fair a creature Formed of common clay? ”

“ The scientific naturalist is struck with admiring wonder when he comes to examine the adaptation of these creatures to their modes of life. The ingenuity of contrivance, in giving strength, yet lightness, to the frame of the bird, is perhaps unequalled in the whole compass of animated nature. ”

“ Through the five sensuous things five creatures find dissolution to the five elements, each one bound by his own character: the deer, the elephant, the moth, the fish, the bee; what then of man, who is snared by all the five? ”

“ As all the Creatures of our World, were made for the Benefit of Human Creatures; so, 'tis probable, all the Creatures of the Irregular World, were produced for the Torment and Confusion of Human Creatures in that World. ”

“ But this is to be noted, That several sorts of Creatures have a mixture of several sorts of Figurative motions; as for example, There are Flying Fish, and Swimming Beasts; also, there are some Creatures that are partly Beasts, and partly Fish, as Otters, and many others; also, a Mule is partly a Horse, and an Ass; a Batt is partly a Mouse, and a Bird; an Owle is partly a Cat and a Bird; and numerous other Creatures there are, that are partly of one sort, and partly of another. ”

“ We need another and a wiser and perhaps a more mystical concept of animals. Remote from universal nature, and living by complicated artifice, man in civilization surveys the creature through the glass of his knowledge and sees thereby a feather magnified and the whole image in distortion. We patronize them for their incompleteness, for their tragic fate of having taken form so far below ourselves. And therein we err, and greatly err. For the animal shall not be measured by man. ”

“ the creature did work slow in the brain, and in the end loost from me, abrupt, and went back with a leap, so that my hands did be ript from the throat of the Beast. ”

“ Creatures of tender form and rare beauty—not so ethereal as the air, not so material as man—danced lightly, as if borne by the breezes, through the woods, which were their possession, intimately interwoven with their existence, for they grew with the trees which they inhabited, and drooped and died with them. ”

“ Beasts, Birds, Fishes, and Creeping-things are names of groups marked off from one another by conspicuous differences of appearance and modes of life—creatures that walk and run, creatures that fly, creatures that live in the water, creatures that crawl. ”

“ First, That Nature is Infinite, and the Eternal Servant of God: Next, That she is Corporeal, and partly self-moving, dividable and composable; that all and every particular Creature, as also all perception and variety in Nature, is made by corporeal self-motion, which I name sensitive and rational matter, which is life and knowledg, sense and reason. ”

“ One can scarce believe these noble creatures have not reason like ourselves. Those slender, thorough-bred heads, large, speaking eyes, and beautiful limbs and graceful action, should be gifted with more than mere animal instinct. ”

“ Some Creatures require a more thin and rarer substance for their imbreathing or inspiring, then others, and some a more thick and grosser substance then others, according to their several Natures; for as there are several kinds of Creatures, according to their several habitations or places they live in, so they have each a distinct and several sort of matter or substance for their inspiration. ”

“ A. "Man" in the Catechism means all human beings, either men or women, boys, girls, or children.
Q. 135. What is a creature? A. A creature is anything created, whether it has life or not; body or no body. Every being, person, or thing except God Himself may be called a creature. ”

“ Thus we see no Creatures so mean in our View, but a Ray of divine Wisdom shines in their Foresight and Contrivance: When we consider how wonderfully these inferior Creatures are conducted in their Operations, how punctually they obey the Laws of their Creator, how solicitously every one propagates his Kind, and makes proper Provisions for his Family ”

“ A selfish pursuit had cramped and narrowed me, until your gentleness and affection warmed and opened my senses; I became the same happy creature who, a few years ago, loved and beloved by all, had no sorrow or care. When happy, inanimate nature had the power of bestowing on me the most delightful sensations. A serene sky and verdant fields filled me with ecstasy. ”

“ And the first creature was like a lion, and the second creature like a calf, and the third creature had a face as of a man, and the fourth creature was like a flying eagle. And the four living creatures, having each one of them six wings, are full of eyes round about and within ”

“ Go down a step or two further, and you come to insects with six legs——hexapods——a beautiful name, is it not? But beauty, in our sense of the word, seems to diminish as we go down: the creature becomes more——I won't say 'ugly' of any of God's creatures——more uncouth. ”

“ These little creatures, in the absolute unconsciousness of innocence, with their beautiful faces, olive-tinted bodies,—all the darker, sad to say, from dirt,—their perfect docility, and absence of prying curiosity, are very bewitching. ”

“ He is a tree or a stone, at best an animal, as long as he does not know it. But, when the first spark of this knowledge glimmers in him he becomes a man. You will not consider all the two-legged creatures who walk out there in the street as human beings, simply because they walk erect and carry their young [Pg 136] nine months in the womb? Look how many of them are fish or sheep, worms or leeches, how many are ants or bees. ”

“ And this may be also understood of other living Creatures. These things being well considered, every one may understand and perceive, that God hath satisfied every one, and that there is no Creature that can justly complain. ”

“ The objects, animate or inanimate, so called, the creatures, the people that surround us, breathe upon us the qualities of their inner life; and we cannot escape the fact, whether conscious of its existence or not. ”

“ There are not sensations, thoughts, passions, and also consciousness, any more than there is quadruped or animal, as a separate being, to be added to the wolves, tigers, elephants, and other living creatures, which I include under those terms. ”

“ Brutes find out where their talents lie: A bear will not attempt to fly; A founder'd horse will oft debate, Before he tries a five-barr'd gate; A dog by instinct turns aside, Who sees the ditch too deep and wide. But man we find the only creature Who, led by Folly, combats Nature; Who, when she loudly cries, Forbear, With obstinacy fixes there; ”

“ It is evident that all living [Pg 299] creatures, from the zoophyte upwards, plant, reptile, bird, animal, and in his natural state—in his physical frame—man also, strive with all their powers to obtain as perfect an existence as possible. ”

“ A wonderful creature this to appear in a man’s house, sit poised on his mantel and blink serenely at him, as if the man himself were the intruder and the room the usual habitat of creatures out of fairy-{11}land. ”

“ Take the animal world, for example—the creatures themselves, and not their names— and look at the diversity of cats and dogs, goats and sheep, beetles and butterflies, soles and shrimps, that even the ordinary unlearned man knows and recognizes, and mostly remembers. ”

“ Collecting the causes of changed form, in lower creatures, by distress, or by adaptation,—by the disturbance or intensifying of the parental strength, and the native fortune—the wonder is, not that species should sometimes be confused, but that the greater number of them remain so splendidly, so manifestly, so eternally distinct ”