1 8 ESSAY ON CLASSIFICATION. 



Physicists, indeed, know these physical agents more 

 accurately than the naturalists who ascribe to them the 

 origin of organized beings. Let us then ask them, whe- 

 ther the nature of these agents is not specific, and whether 

 their mode of action is not specific 1 They will all answer 

 that they are. Let us further inquire of them, what evi- 

 dence is there, in the present state of our knowledge, that 

 at any time these physical agents have produced any thing 

 they no longer do produce, and what probability is there 

 that they ever have produced any organized being \ If I 

 am not greatly mistaken, the masters in that department 

 of science will, one and all, answer, none whatever. 



But the character of the connections between organized 

 beings and the physical conditions under which they live 

 is such as to display thought ; l these connections are 

 therefore to be considered as established, determined and 

 regulated by a thinking being. They must have been 

 fixed for each species at its beginning ; while the fact of 

 their permanency through successive generations 2 is fur- 

 ther evidence, that with their natural relations to the 

 surrounding world were also determined the relations of 

 individuals to one another, 3 their generic as well as their 

 family relations, and every higher grade of affinity; 4 

 showing, therefore, not only thought in reference to the 

 physical conditions of existence, but such comprehensive 

 thoughts as would embrace simultaneously every charac- 

 teristic of each species. 



Every fact relating to the geographical distribution of 

 animals and plants might be alluded to in confirmation of 

 this argument, but especially the character of every fauna 

 and every flora upon the surface of the globe. How great 



1 See below, Sect. 16. 3 See below, Sect. 17. 



2 See below, Sect. 15. 4 See below, Sect. 6. 



