156 STUDY OF NATURAL HISTORY. 
natural mode of classifying her productions; that is, 
in the true series or chain of being. We venture 
these remarks, not in disparagement of the great 
names who have gone before us; and to whom, on 
so many other points, science is highly indebted ; 
but that the naturalist may clearly see the shallow 
basis upon which his prejudices of opinion rest, 
when they have been formed in favcur of isolated 
systems and arbitrary methods. Upon a subject, 
however, of so much importance to the successful 
prosecution of science, we may offer some further 
considerations. 
(95.) It is a fact which the progress of human 
knowledge has demonstrated, and which is conti- 
nually receiving new and corroborative proofs, that 
the more we understand of the primary laws of 
nature, the more simple, universal, and harmonious 
do we find them. To suppose, therefore, that a 
theory of arrangement can be natural, which pre- 
tends hot to explain and to illustrate any one general 
law of nature, is, in fact, either virtually to deny that 
any such exist, or that, however other sciences may 
be governed by general laws, that of natural history 
is exempt fromthem. To adduce arguments against 
either of these propositions would be a waste of 
words: their futility being admitted, how strongly 
will such considerations shake our faith, and destroy 
our prejudices, in favour of such systems of nature 
as are not founded on general laws. It may, perhaps, 
be admitted, that analogical reasoning authorises 
the supposition, that natural history, in this respect, 
differs not from other physical sciences; but it may 
be contended, these new theories, which have been 
