Classification. 47 



characters presenting resemblances to one another 

 have always been found to be of special importance 

 as guides to classification. This, of course, is what we 

 should have expected, if the real meaning of classifica- 

 tion be that of tracing lines of pedigree ; but on the 

 theory of special creation no reason can be assigned 

 why single characters are not such sure tokens of 

 a natural arrangement as are aggregates of characters, 

 however trivial the latter may be. For it is obvious 

 that unity of ideal might have been even better 

 displayed by everywhere maintaining the pattern of 

 some one important structure, than by doing so in the 

 case of several unimportant structures. Take an 

 analogous instance from human contrivances. Unity 

 of ideal in the case of gun- making would be shown by 

 the same principles of mechanism running through all 

 the different sizes and shapes of gun-locks, rather than 

 by the ornamental patterns engraved upon the outside 

 Yet it must be supposed that in the mechanisms 

 assumed to have been constructed by special creation, 

 it was the trivial details rather than the fundamental 

 principles of these mechanisms which were chosen by 

 the Divinity to display his ideals. 



And this leads us to the next consideration — 

 namely, that when in two different lines of descent 

 animals happen to adopt similar habits of life, the 

 modifications which they undergo in order to fit them 

 for these habits often induces striking resemblances of 

 structure between the two animals, as in the case of 

 whales and fish. But in all such instances it is 

 invariably found that the resemblance is only super- 

 ficial and apparent : not anatomical or real. In other 

 words, the resemblance does not extend further than 



