700 



sought for notoriety which is the concomitant of human conceptions, 

 and is nicely apportioned in degree to their respective briUiancy. 



My own ideas of system have been fully explained as regards the 

 Animal Kingdom ; but as far as ray information extends, no attempt 

 has even been made to test the applicability of the same laws to the 

 vegetable world. I do not pretend that 1 am in a situation to do this, 

 but I think enough is now known of the Vegetable Kingdom to show 

 the extreme probability, the almost certainty of the applicability of 

 the same laws in grouping both animals and vegetables. The his- 

 tory of physical science exhibits a tendency to subdivide large and 

 conspicuous forms, rather than small or obscure forms. This tendency 

 spreads itself like an impenetrable fog over the works of our earlier 

 naturalists, but becomes gradually dissipated by the advance of know- 

 ledge. And here perhaps I may be allowed to venture a criticism on 

 Linnean classification. It was the failing of this great man to leave 

 the more imperfect individuals of every group, without sufficient inves- 

 tigation, and hence to institute groups bearing the same title, but of most 

 unequal value. In this respect, Jussieu was infinitely superior : who 

 that has the slightest idea of equivalents in natural history, will not 

 at once admit that Monandria or Diandria or Triandria, is no equiva- 

 lent to the class Cryptogamia, while the Vasculares and Cellulares of 

 Jussieu are as justly balanced as the Vertebrata and Invertebrata of 

 Lamarck : in saying this I do not assert that either of these divisions 

 is unexceptionable, but they are intelligible, and indicate compre- 

 hensive ideas in those who defined them. The value of equivalents 

 has yet to be acknowledged, but acknowledged it must be before we 

 can make one safe step towards the discovery of the System of 

 Nature. 



In the Animal Kingdom, the great and simple division suggested by 

 Lamarck of Vertebrata and Invertebrata is perfectly truthful, which is 

 the highest attribute of all, but is it final .-' Can we show that the 

 Invertebrata does not contain several groups equal to the whole of the 

 Vertebrata? Can we not, on the contrary, show that itYloes contain such 

 groups ? Are not the Articulata, Molluscata, and Radiata, as regards 

 primary difference in structure, nearly as isolated as the Vertebrata 

 themselves ? The use of the negative in is intensely deceptive : we 

 can scarcely resist grasping at so plausible a division as vertebrate 

 and ewvertebrate, but if we reflect that a division into radiate and 

 2wradiate possesses in an equal degree the merit of a positive and nega- 

 tive, we shall pause, before allowing too great weight to such a mode ol 

 division. 



