CiiAP. I. SUCCESSION AND STANDING OF ANIMALS. Ill 



class of Fishes, and that this class assmiics only its proper characters alter the 

 introduction of the class of Reptiles upon earth. Similar relations may be traced 

 between the Reptiles and the classes of Birds and Mammaha, which they precede. 

 I need only allude here to the resemblance of the Pterodactyli and the Birds, and 

 to that of Ichthyosauri and certain Cetacea. Yet, through all these intricate rela- 

 tions, there runs an e\ident tendency towards the production of higher and higher 

 types, initil at last, Man crowiis the whole series. Seen as it were at a distance, 

 so that the mind can take a general survey of the whole, and perceive the con- 

 nection of the successive steps, without being bewildered by the details, such a 

 series appears like the development of a great conce2)tion, expressed in such har- 

 monious proportions, that every link appears necessary to the full comprehension 

 of its meaning, and yet, so independent and perfect in itself, that it might be 

 mistaken for a complete whole, and again, so intimately connected with the pre- 

 ceding and following members of the series, that one might be viewed as flo^nng 

 out of the other. What is universally acknowledged as characteristic of the highest 

 conceptions of genius, is here displayed in a fulness, a richness, a magnificence, 

 an amplitude, a perfection of details, a complication of relations, which baffle our 

 skill and our most jjersevering efforts to appi'eciate all its beauties. Who can 

 look upon such series, coinciding to such an extent, and not read in them the 

 successive manifestations of a thought, expressed at different times, in ever new 

 fomis, and yet tending to the same end, onwards to the coming of Man, whose 

 advent is already prophesied in the first appearance of the earhest Fishes ! 



The relative standing of plants presents a somewhat different character from that 

 of animals. Their great types are not buUt upon so strictly diflerent plans of 

 structure ; they exhibit, therefore, a more unifonn gradation from their lowest to 

 their highest types, which are not personified in one highest plant, as the highest 

 animals are in Man. 



Again, Zoology is more advanced respecting the limitation of the most compre- 

 hensive general divisions, than Botan}', Avhile Botany is in advance respecting the 

 Umitation and characteristics of families and genera. There is, on that account, more 

 diversity of opinion among botanists respecting the number, and the relative rank 

 of the primary divisions of the vegetable kingdom, than among zoologists respecting 

 the great branches of the animal kingdom. While most writers^ agree in admitting 

 among plants, such primary groups as Acotyledones, Monocotyledones, and Dicotyle- 

 dones, luider these or other names, others would separate the Gymnosperms from 

 the Dicotyledones.^ 



It appears to me, that this pcjint in the classification of the living plants cannot 



* GiJpPERT, etc., q. a., p. 93. ^ Ad. Broxgmart, etc., q. a., p. 93. 



