320 THE FOUNDATIONS OF ZOOLOGY 



mentary knowledge, that we are anew introducing order into 

 chaos ? Is this order the result of the exertion of human skill 

 and ingenuity, or is it inherent in the objects themselves, so that 

 the intelligent student of Natural History is led unconsciously, 

 by the study of the animal kingdom itself, to those conclusions, 

 the great divisions under which he arranges animals being indeed 

 but the headings to the chapters of the great book which he is 

 reading ? " 



There may still be, here and there, a writer on " logic " who 

 holds that since zoology is a " classificatory " science, the work of 

 the naturalist is like that of one who arranges and tickets books 

 in a library for ease of reference ; but the modern student of science 

 reads such assertions with a sad smile that one should be so igno- 

 rant; for he is as fully convinced as Agassiz that the realm of 

 living nature is a consistent and harmonious whole, and that the 

 work of the naturalist is to discover and not to create ; for he bases 

 all his work upon the conviction that "■ animals are linked together 

 as closely by their mode of development, by their relative standing 

 in their respective classes, by the order in which they have made 

 their appearance upon earth, by their geographical distribution, 

 and generally by their connection with the world in which they 

 live, as by their anatomy." 



Since all now admit the validity of this basis for the argument 

 of Agassiz, why has the work of this man of great genius been 

 without perceptible influence on modern thought; while the work 

 of much less able men, like Paley, was for many years an im- 

 portant educational influence ? 



Why do not modern naturalists agree with Agassiz, that " all 

 organized beings exhibit in themselves all these categories of 

 structure and of existence upon which a natural system is founded, 

 in such a manner that, in tracing it, the human mind is only trans- 

 lating into human language the Divine thoughts expressed in 

 nature in living realities " ? 



Agassiz holds that *' in one word, all these facts in their natural 

 connection proclaim aloud the One God, whom man may know, 

 adore, and love ; and Natural History must, in good time, become 

 the analysis of the thoughts of the Creator of the Universe, as 

 manifested in the animal and vegetable kingdoms." 



