14 EAELY PROGRESS IN NATURAL HISTORY. 



not an attempt to classify for our own con- 

 venience the objects we study, then they are 

 thoughts which, whether we detect them or not, 

 are expressed in Nature, then Nature is the 

 work of thought, the production of intelligence, 

 carried out according to plan, therefore premedi- 

 tated, and in our study of natural objects we 

 are approaching the thoughts of the Creator, 

 reading his conceptions, interpreting a system 

 that is his and not ours. 



All the divergence from the simplicity and 

 grandeur of the division of the animal kingdom 

 first recognized by Cuvier arises from an ina- 

 bility to distinguish between the essential fea- 

 tures of a plan and its various modes of execu- 

 tion. We allow the details to shut out the plan 

 itself, which exists quite independent of special 

 forms. I hope we shall find a meaning in all 

 these plans that will prove them to be the parts 

 of one great conception and the work of one 

 Mind. 



