L4 EARLY PROGRESS IN NATURAL HISTORY. 



uot an attempt to classify for our own con- 

 venience the objects we study, then they are 

 thoughts which, whether we detect them or not, 

 are expressed in Nature, — then Nature is the 

 work of thought, the production of intelligence, 

 carried out according to plan, therefore premedi- 

 tated, — and in our study of natural objects we 

 are approaching the thoughts of the Creator, 

 reading his conceptions, interpreting a system 

 that is his and not ours. 



All the divergence from the simplicity and 

 grandeur of the division of the animal kingdom 

 first recognized by Cuvier arises from an ina- 

 bility to distinguish between the essential fea- 

 tures of a plan and its various modes of execu- 

 tion. We allow the details to shut out the plan 

 itself, which exists quite independent of special 

 forms. I hope we shall find a meaning in all 

 these plans that will prove them to be the parts 

 of one great conception and the work of one 

 Mind. 



