THE CLASSES. 5 



sense, has put this so strongly that I cannot refrain from 

 quoting his words.* 



" But I doubt if any one would have divined, if untaught by 

 observation, that all ruminants have the foot cleft, and that 

 they alone have it. I doubt if any one woul 1 have divined 

 that there are frontal horns only in this class : that those 

 among them which have sharp canines for the most part lack 

 horns. 



"However, since these relations are constant, they must 

 have some sufficient cause ; but since we are ignorant of it, we 

 must make good the defect of the theory by means of observa- 

 tion : it enables us to establish empirical laws, which become 

 almost as certain as rational laws, when they rest on sufficiently 

 repeated observations; so that now, whoso sees merely the 

 print of a cleft foot may conclude that the animal which left 

 this impression ruminated, and this conclusion is as certain as 

 any other in physics or morals. This footprint alone, then, 

 yields to him who observes it, the form of the teeth, the form 

 of the jaws, the form of the vertebrae, the form of all the bones 

 of the legs, of the thighs, of the shoulders, and of the pelvis of 

 the animal which has passed by : it is a surer mark than all 

 those of Zadig." 



* ' Os-semens fosailes,' eel. 4 mo , tome l r , p. 184. 



