228 ESSAY ON CLASSIFICATION. 



one from the other, even in the same family ; and such 

 inequality, and not an equable apportionment, is the norm 

 throughout nature. In classes, it is not only exhibited in 

 the variety of their forms, but also, to an extraordinary 

 extent, in their numbers; as, for instance, in the class of 

 Insects compared witji that of Worms or Crustacea. The 

 primary divisions of the animal kingdom differ in the 

 same manner one from the other. Articulata are by far 

 the most numerous branch of the whole animal kingdom ; 

 their number exceeding greatly that of all other animals 

 put together. Such facts are in themselves sufficient to 

 show how artificial those classifications must be which 

 admit only the same number and the same kind of divi- 

 sions for all the types of the animal kingdom. 



SECTION III. 



ORDERS AMONG ANIMALS. 



Great as is the discrepancy between naturalists respect- 

 ing the number and limits of classes in the animal king- 

 dom, their disagreement in regard to orders and families 

 is yet far greater. These conflicting views, however, do 

 not in the least shake my confidence in the existence of, 

 fixed relations between animals, determined by thought- 

 ful considerations. I would as soon cease to believe in 

 the existence of one God because men worship Him in so 

 many different ways, or because they even worship gods of 

 their own making, as to distrust the evidence of my own 

 senses respecting the existence of a pre established and 

 duly considered system in nature, the arrangement of 

 which preceded the creation of all things that exist. 



From the manner in which orders are generally charac- 



