224 REMARKS UPON THE 



animal kingdom. ' " This has always appeared to me one of the 

 most unsoimd and unphilosophical of the doctrines main- 

 tained by the advocates of the circular system. It seems 

 derogatory to Creative Power to suppose that the principle 

 of representation had any place in the scheme of creation, 

 or that certain organs were given to species, not with a view 

 to the discharge of certain destined functions, but for the 

 apparently useless object of imitating or representing other 

 species in a distant part of the system. The advocates of 

 this theory would have us believe that the long tail of the 

 horse was given it, not for the purpose of brushing off flies, 

 but in order to represent the long " tail" [train] of the pea- 

 cock,* and that both pigs and humming-birds have small 

 eyes, because they are the tenuirostral types of their respec- 

 tive "circles." 3 Without wasting words upon the serious 

 discussion of such puerilities, I will merely repeat my de- 

 liberate conviction, that relations of analogy are not to be 

 regarded as affording any evidence of Tr^oal^ea-ig, or intention, 

 in the scheme of creation, but are mere coincidences of struc- 

 ture, incidental to the grand design of adapting a large num- 

 ber of organized beings to perform a comparatively limited 

 number of functions. 



It will be seen that the above view of affinity and analogy 

 differs considerably from that of Mr. Westwood, in p. 143 of 

 this Magazine. Mr. W. seems to regard affinity and analogy 

 as the same relation under different points of view, and as 

 depending upon the numerical majority or minority of the 

 points of agreement between the objects compared. Mr. 

 Westwood's views may be explained by the following tabular 

 arrangement, showing the number of points of agreement 

 between four analogous genera. 



According to Mr. Westwood, the dragon-fly would be said 

 to have an affinity to the bat or goatsucker, and an analogy 

 to the Dionaea, because it agiees with the former creatures in 

 three points, and with the latter in only two. Again, the bat 

 has an affinity to the goatsucker, from agreeing with it in 



' Swainson, ' Geog. and Classif. of Animals,' p. 230. 



2 Swainson, * Classif. of Birds,' vol. ii. p. 159. 



3 lb. vol. i. p. 43. 



