INTRODUCTION. XXXUl 



not been sufficiently numerous to make these intervals 

 much less. 



That a special design is exhibited in creation there 

 can, I think, be but little doubt. It is admitted by almost 

 all, and most fully and unequivocally in the best known 

 and most highly organized group, the Vertebrata;* in all 

 the classes of which a certain archetype of form is pre- 

 served, marked and recognizable, however disguised for 

 special ends. It is surely more consonant to our ideas of a 

 Creator to believe that he formed his numberless creatures 

 with certain relations to each other, than to conceive that 

 each was brought to life independently. Indeed, a follower 

 of Darwin might fairly argue that the evidence of design 

 is as clearly shown by the theory of the transmutation of 

 species, as by that of separate individual creation; but 

 Darwin himself, perhaps, lays too much stress on external 

 and fortuitcJus circumstances as producing varieties, and 

 not enough on the inherent power of change, which, as he 

 clearly shows, is now and then exhibited by various organic 

 bodies. 



That species were created at hap-hazard, without any 

 reference to others, either of the same group, or more dis- 

 tant ones, is a doctrine so opposed to all the affinities and 

 analogies observed throughout the animated world, that the 

 mind refuses to accept it, and intuitively acknowledges the 

 evidence of design. 



That a certain system has been followed, if we allow 

 design at all, must be admitted, but the exponent of the 

 natural system has yet to appear. The tendency of the 



* In the Introduction to Mammalia, a brief sketch of the Animal Kingdom will be 

 given, and its division into sub-kingdoms, and classes, with a few general remarks 

 on Classification. 



