228 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. 



