366 SYSTEM OF INSECTS. 
to a preconcerted plan, with all its parts beautifully link- 
ed together and mutually corresponding. All things 
were ordered in measure, and number, and weight a . 
There was nothing deficient, nothing superfluous ; but 
the whole in the strictest sense " was very good b ," and 
calculated in the highest degree to answer the purpose 
of its Great Author. I call it a system of Correlation, 
because there is discernible in it, in the first place, a con- 
catenation of its parts, by which, as to their forms and 
uses, objects are linked together in groups by a chain of 
affinities ; so that we pass from one to the other by gen- 
tle gradations, without having to overleap any wide in- 
terval. We see also a gradual ascent from low to high, 
from less to more excellent. And this leads us to an- 
other kind of relationship between natural objects, by 
which, though placed in distinct groups or in a different 
series, they in some sort represent and symbolize each 
other. Examples of this relationship by analogy are to 
be found in every kingdom of nature, and often form an 
ascending series from the lowest to the highest ; for, as 
we shall see hereafter, these resemblances appear to 
maintain a certain correspondence with each other as to 
their relative situations ; so that, for instance, in the ani- 
mal kingdom they ascend step by step, without being 
linked by affinity or having any real juxtaposition, from 
the lowest groups, towards man, who stands alone at the 
head, or in the centre of all. — I shall say something on 
each of these kinds of relationship. 
I. The relation of affinity may be considered as to its 
series and groups. A series, of course, consists of parts 
a Wisdom, xi. 20. b Genes, i. 31. 
