SUMMARY OF ' PHILOSOPHIE ZOOLOGIQUE: 269 



can exist but by the will of this Supreme Author, but can 

 we venture to assign rules to him in the execution of his 

 will ? May not his infinite power have chosen to create 

 an order of things which should evolve in succession all 

 that we know as well as all that we do not know? 

 Whether we regard species as created or evolved, the 

 boundlessness of his power remains unchanged, and 

 incapable of any diminution whatsoever. Let us then 

 confine ourselves simply to observing the facts around 

 us, and if we find any clue to the path taken by Nature, 

 let us say fearlessly that it has pleased her Almighty 

 Author that she should take this path.* 



''What applies to species applies also to genera; the 

 further our knowledge extends, the more difficult do we 

 find it to assign its exact limits to any genus. Gaps in 

 our collections are being continually filled up, to the 

 effacement of our dividing lines of demarcation. We are 

 thus compelled to settle the limits of species and variety 

 arbitrarily, and in a manner about which there will be 

 constant disagreement. Naturalists are daily classify- 

 ing new species which blend into one another so insen- 

 sibly that there can hardly be found words to express 

 the minute differences between them. The gaps that 

 exist are simply due to our not having yet found the 

 connecting species. 



"I do not, however, mean to say that animal life 

 forms a simple and continuously blended series. Life 

 is rather comparable to a ramification. In life we 

 should see, as it were, a ramified continuity, if certain 

 species had not been lost. The species which, according 



* Phil. Zool.,' torn. i. p. 74, 75, 



