Relations of Organized Beings. 355 



in the structure of an individual organism, but in the mutual 

 relations of those organisms, the due combinations of which 

 constitute the Natural Systems of Botany and Zoology. 



When the human mind first began to observe and to com- 

 pare the structures of organic life, to generalize the points of 

 agreement, and thus to lay the foundation of the Science of 

 Natural History, no inherent principles of classification were 

 even suspected to exist, characters were compared and gene- 

 ralized at random, and the arrangements which resulted were 

 of the rudest and most unphilosophical kind. The most su- 

 perficial and arbitrary characters were selected as the basis of 

 classification, and no man was able to give a reason why one 

 mode of arrangement should not be as correct and as true to 

 Nature as another. Thus we find the older naturalists class- 

 ing Lizards, Tortoises and Frogs with terrestrial Mammalia, 

 under the name of " Four-footed Beasts," while Serpents 

 were made into a distinct Class ; and Whales, whose physio- 

 logical organization is as highly developed as in any other 

 Mammal, were dismissed among the cold-blooded Class of 

 Fish, into which the humble Lobster and the Oyster entered 

 from the other side to keep them company. By some authors 

 we find the Echinus and the Hedge-hog approximated, be- 

 cause both are covered with spines; the Ammonite and the 

 Rock-crystal were described in the same chapter "de lapi- 

 dibus"; Shrew-mice and Spiders were classed together, be- 

 cause both were supposed to be venomous ; Bats were referred 

 to Birds, Corals to Plants, and so on. 



In the course of the seventeenth century, the few who cul- 

 tivated natural science began to be conscious that these crude 

 arrangements were not satisfactory, or consistent with the 

 realities of Nature; and in the works of Ray and of Lister, we 

 perceive many instances of an instinctive preference for essen- 

 tial instead of arbitrary characters. But it was Linnasus who 

 first pointed out in express terms the great principle of the 

 Subordination of Characters. This principle teaches us to give 

 to each point of structure its due weight, and to attach more 

 value to those peculiarities whose immediate influence on the 

 mysteries of Life often renders them the most difficult for our 

 senses to appreciate, than to those external characters which, 

 though most conspicuous to the eye, are but remotely con- 

 nected with the real Essence of the creature. This principle 

 has been further developed by later naturalists, especially by 

 Cuvier, and accordingly we now find that in the modern sy- 

 stems of Zoology the primary divisions of the Animal King- 

 dom are based on characters derived chiefly from the nervous 

 system, as being the most important feature in organization, 



