THE ARCHIPELAGO OF BREHAT. 105 



into one another, the mechanism becomes simplified, 

 and the entire organism is degraded, until at length on 

 reachino* the extreme limits we discover a multitude 

 of ambiguous creatures, whose true relations it is 

 extremely difficult to determine. One might almost 

 fancy that nature was proposing to herself apparently 

 insoluble problems for the mere pleasure of sporting 

 with the difficulties which she sometimes surmounts 

 in the most direct manner, while at other times she 

 eludes them by the most unexpected contrivances 

 and the most marvellous combinations. Each type, 

 although remaining fundamentally the same, clothes 

 itself as it were in a thousand different forms, leading 

 the naturalist astray at every step he takes in his 

 encounter with this veritable Proteus. Let him not 

 lose courage, but pursue the god under all his 

 metamorphoses, and sooner or later he will assuredly 

 compel him to reveal his secrets. Then, if, strength- 

 ened by the knowledge of these revelations, he 

 should return to the study of higher animals, he will 

 see the darkness vanish, and a way opened across 

 many of the barriers which he had before regarded 

 as impassable. 



Let us take by way of illustration one of those 

 principal groups termed by Cuvier embranchements ; 

 for instance, the group of the Articulata. The essen- 

 tial character of this group consists in the tendency 

 of the organism to divide into rings, arranged like 

 strings of beads, each ring presenting an exact repe- 

 tition of the same forms and orsfans as the other 

 rings. In the Articulata all the organs are in pairs, 

 so that a longitudinal section of one of these animals 



