198 STUDY OF NATURAL HISTORY 



the marks of being violently dissevered from other 

 portions. They are — to use a homely expression — 

 bits and scraps of that which is, naturally, a uniform 

 and connected whole. To illustrate this, we need only 

 advert to the best classification of quadrupeds now 

 extant. Commencing with the orang otan, the series 

 passes from them to the baboons, the monkeys, the 

 liowling apes, the' prehensile monkeys, the lories, 

 and the bats. So far there is an evident appearance 

 of a natural series, and we begin to think the author 

 is really arranging animals according to their organ- 

 isation ; but we have arrived at the end of the first 

 fragment of the chain, and, dismissing all idea of 

 continuity, we are to begin on another. Imme- 

 diately after the bats are placed the hedgehogs, and 

 following these come the bears. Every person, 

 possessing the slightest knowledge of these animals, 

 at once perceives how unnaturally they are thus 

 combined ; and when he learns that there is no 

 other reason for this, than because they happen to 

 agree in some one or two points of organisation, 

 arbitrarily fixed upon as the groundwork of the 

 system, he may fairly question whether such a 

 series exhibits the true order of nature. Mixed 

 systems, moreover, lie under the same objection 

 which.has already been urged against artificial ones — . 

 that is, they exhibit none of that harmony of plan 

 between the different groups, which must necessarily 

 form a part of the system of nature. Nor do they 

 even show an uniformity in the minor divisions of 

 that particular department upon which they treat. 

 An arrangement of quadrupeds, for instance, is 

 made, as if quadrupeds had no reference to birds, 



