CLASSIFICATION. 19 
of the vertebrate animals,—I instance the powers and loco- 
motion of the Cephalopoda. 
In conclusion we observe, that Nature has put a veto on 
any arrangement that shall be exempt from anomalies and 
incongruities ; we must look at her largely as a class, with a 
few well-marked divisions, and not be too sensitive about 
utopian details of strict natural order. We are prepared to 
expect that the present scheme will follow the fate of every 
other system of classification that has preceded it, however 
great may be the authorities from which they have sprung. 
It is universally admitted that the most accredited plans are 
unsatisfactory, and I venture to predict, that to the end of 
time our successors will make the same remarks. Mathema- 
tical nature is not an attribute of this sphere; the votaries of 
that condition must seek for it 
eae Als Sine extra flammantia moenia mundi.’’ 
The synopsis of the genera, we again impress it, shows the 
impossibility of such an arrangement. We have here perhaps 
as much connective harmony as the Mollusca can receive. 
We do not say that there may not be transpositions and cer- 
tain modifications of the genera to meet the particular views 
of malacologists, but the general outline may perhaps be as 
near the truth as the subject will admit of. If zoologists 
demand a natural line, they cannot have it without excluding 
from the grand main various families. In consequence, our 
classification, at certain points, presents incongruities that no 
art can arrange satisfactorily, but they are brought as near to 
each other as Nature will allow of. We must submit, as we 
cannot alter her laws and dispositions. The fact of our line 
not according a direct totality of strict affinities, proves that 
Nature cannot be thus arranged, because the Supreme Creator, 
whose handmaiden she is, has not invested her with the power 
of effecting a symmetry beyond what she has accomplished. 
