298 STUDY OF NATURAL HISTORY. 
been already said, is applicable alike to all systems 
and all theories intended to develope the harmonies 
and relations of nature. We have, in short, stu- 
diously endeavoured to keep the mind of the natu- 
ralist unbiassed in favour of any system, and have 
restricted our observations to such considerations 
only as must be the foundation of all natural ar- 
rangement. But, as the admission of chasms in the 
order of nature appears to militate, at first sight, 
against the continuity, or rather the gradation, of 
forms in the creation, we may here make a slight 
digression on so important a subject. The most 
philosophic naturalist of modern times has placed 
this difficult subject in a light so clear and forcible, 
hat we cannot do better than condense, in one pa- 
ragraph, his observations upon it, which are blended 
in the original * with other matters not adapted to 
this work. 
(159.) The law of continuity, as it relates to 
forms of matter, may truly be proved possible in 
itself, and, in the next place, to exist in nature. Conti- 
nuity in gradation of structure has, however, nothing 
to do with space or time. Matter, with respect to 
space, is capable of incontinuity ; but with respect 
to gradation of form, it is as clearly capable of con- , 
tinuity. For this purpose, let us state a familiar 
case. Suppose a beautiful Grecian temple to be 
built in the neighbourhood of a sublime specimen 
of Gothic architecture. Let us further suppose, that 
between these two different buildings there is a trans- 
ition made from one form to the other by an infinite 


* M‘Leay’s Letter on Dichotomous Systems. 
y ) 
