416 HISTORY OF ZOOLOGY. 



of man, but in the present instance we must speak of him last, because 

 he requires most study. We must begin then with those animals 

 which have shells ; we must go on to those which have softer cover- 

 inp-s, as Crustacea, soft animals, and insects; after these, fishes, both 

 viviparous and oviparous ; then birds ; then land animals, both vivi 

 parous and oviparous." 



It is clear from this passage that Aristotle had certain wide and 

 indefinite views of classification, which though not very exact, are still 

 highly creditable to him ; but it is equally clear that he was quite 

 unconscious of the classification that has been ascribed to him. If he 

 had adopted that or any other system, this was precisely the place in 

 which he must have referred to and employed it. 



The honor due to the stupendous accumulation of zoological know- 

 ledge which Aristotle's works contain, cannot be tarnished by our 

 denying him the credit of a system which he never dreamt of, and 

 which, from the nature of the progress of science, could not possibly 

 be constructed at that period. But, in reality, we may exchange the 

 mistaken claims which we have been contesting for a better, because a 

 truer praise. Aristotle does show, as far as could be done at his time, 

 a perception of the need of groups, and of names of groups, in the 

 study of the animal kingdom ; and thus may justly be held up as the 

 great figure in the Prelude to the Formation of Systems which took 

 place in more advanced scientific times. 



This appears, in some measure, from the passage last quoted. For 

 not only is there, in that, a clear recognition of the value and object 

 of a method in natural history ; but the general arrangement of the 

 animal kingdom there proposed has considerable scientific merit, and 

 is, for the time, very philosophical. But there are passages in his work 

 in which he shows a wish to carry the principle of arrangement more 

 into detail. Thus, in the first Book, before proceeding to his survey 

 of the differences of animals, 10 after speaking of such classes as Qua- 

 drupeds, Birds, Fishes, Cetaceous, Testaceous, Crustaceous Animals, 

 Mollusks, Insects, he says, (chap, vii.) 



" Animals cannot be divided into large genera, in which one kind 

 includes many kinds. For some kinds are unique, and have no differ- 

 ence of species, as man. Some have such kinds, but have no names 

 for them. Thus all quadrupeds which have not wings, have blood. 

 But of these, some are viviparous, some oviparous. Those which are 



