284 ESSAY ON CLASSIFICATION. 



mers, who have not become tired of looking into the 

 relations of the few members of our solar system and de- 

 termining, with increased precision, their motions, their size, 

 their physical constitution, and should keep in mind that 

 every organized being, however simple in its structure, 

 presents to our appreciation far more complicated phe- 

 nomena, within our reach, than all the celestial bodies put 

 together; they should remember, that, as the great lite- 

 rary productions of past ages attract ever anew the at- 

 tention of scholars, who never feel that they have ex- 

 hausted the inquiry into their depth and beauty, so the 

 living works of God, which it is the proper sphere of 

 Zoology to study, will never cease to present new at- 

 tractions to them, if they proceed to the investigation of 

 them with the right spirit. The study of them, indeed, 

 ought to inspire every one with due reverence and admi- 

 ration for such wonderful productions. 



The subject of classification in particular, which seems 

 to embrace apparently so limited a field in the science of 

 animals, cannot be rightly and fully understood without 

 a comprehensive knowledge of all the topics alluded to in 

 the preceding pages. 



Turtle, Strauss-Durckheim's Anato- years will be required, at the present 



my of Melolontha, Owen's Anatomy rate of our progress, to investigate 



of the Nautilus, Baer's, Bischoff% satisfactorily, and in all their rela- 



Rathke's, J. Midler's, Kolliker's, He- tions, the hundred thousands of living 



rold's, and so many other embryolo- and extinct animals now known to 



gical works. And yet valuable as exist. It might afford some con- 



these investigations are, they cover solation to those impatient spirits 



only a very small part of the field, who quarrel with their fellow-students 



It may, indeed, be said that there about the discovery of a hair upon a 



hardly appears one such work every stuffed skin, if they only knew what 



other year, and that thousands of rich harvests remain to be gathered. 



