ANALOGIES. 201 



through all succeeding time. And this it is that 

 makes the study of Comparative Anatomy so fascina- 

 ting. Not that I mean to favour a theory of develop- 

 ment, which would obliterate all idea of species, by 

 supposing that the more compound animal forms were 

 developments of their simpler ancestors. For such an 

 hypothesis Natural History affords no evidence ; but she 

 gives us, through all her domains, the most beautiful 

 and diversified proofs of an adherence to a settled 

 order, in which new combinations are continually 

 brought out. In this order, the lowest grades of being 

 have certain characters, above which they do not rise, 

 but propagate beings as simple as themselves. Above 

 them are others which, passing through stages in their 

 infancy equal to the adult condition of those below, 

 acquire, when at maturity, a perfection of organs pecu- 

 liarly their own. Others again rise above these, and 

 thus structures become gradually more compound ; till 

 at last it maybe said that the simpler animals represent, 

 as in a glass, the scattered organs of the higher races. 



