12 HISTORY OF ZOOLOGY 



CHAPTER VI. 



THE PROGRESS OF SYSTEMATIC ZOOLOGY. 



history of Systematic Botany, as we have presented it, may 

 be considered as a sufficient type of the general order of pro- 

 gression in the sciences of classification. It has appeared, in the sur- 

 vey which we have had to give, that this science, no less than those 

 which we first considered, has been formed by a series of inductive 

 processes, and has, in its history, Epochs at which, by such processes, 

 decided advances were made. The important step in such cases is, 

 the seizing upon some artificial mark which conforms to natural resem- 

 blances ; some basis of arrangement and nomenclature by means of 

 which true propositions of considerable generality can be enunciated. 

 The advance of other classificatory sciences, as well as botany, must 

 consist of such steps; and their course, like that of botany, must (if 

 we attend only to the real additions made to knowledge,) be gradual 

 and progressive, from the earliest times to the present. 



To exemplify this continued and constant progression in the whole 

 range of Zoology, would require vast knowledge and great labor; and 

 is, perhaps, the less necessary, after we have dwelt so long on the his- 

 tory of Botany, considered in the same point of view. But there arc 

 a few observations respecting Zoology in general which we are led to 

 make in consequence of statements recently promulgated ; for these 

 statements seem to represent the history of Zoology as having followed 

 a course very different from that which we have just ascribed to the 

 classificatory sciences in general. It is held by some naturalists, that 

 not only the formation of a systematic classification in Zoology d.-itrs 

 as far back as Aristotle ; but that his classification is, in many respects, 

 superior to some of the most admired and recent attempts of modern 

 times. 



If this were really the case, it would show that at least the idea of 

 a Systematic Classification had been formed and developed long pre- 

 vious to the period to which we have assigned such a step ; and it 

 \vould be difficult to reconcile such an early maturity of Zoology with 

 the conviction, which we have had impressed upon us by the other 



