THE CHAIN OF BEING. 205 



followed the other, with only such intervals as 

 future acquisitions or discoveries might be supposed 

 to fill up. At all events, he would not have been 

 perplexed by an apparent multiplicity of relations, 

 branching off in different directions, and totally dis- 

 composing his linear series. Every object which is 

 arranged, like the links of a chain, in a simple line 

 of progression, can have but two immediate affinities : 

 one, by which it is connected to that which precedes 

 it ; the other, to that which follows it. The student, 

 therefore, at the very commencement of his study, 

 has a demonstrative illustration that the chain of 

 being is continuous, yet at the same time not 

 simple. This truth being verified, he has next to 

 enquire in what mode this continuity is preserved, 

 and what is the actual course it takes in its pro- 

 gress from the most perfect to the most imperfect 

 organised beings. 



(140.) Now, to solve this latter question, there 

 are, as it has been justly observed of natural phe- 

 nomena in general*, three modes by which we may 

 proceed. First, by inductive reasoning : that is, by 

 commencing with the lowest or nearest approxima- 

 tions, as that of species to species ; forming groups 

 of them, and then endeavouring to discover the 

 degrees of affinity or of proximation which these 

 groups bear to one another. Secondly, by forming 

 at once a bold hypothesis, particularising the law, 

 and trying the truth of it by following out its con- 

 sequences, and comparing them with facts: or, 

 thirdly, by a process partaking of both these, and 



* Herschel, Dis. (Cab. Cyc. vol. xiv.) p. 198. 



