M A M M A L I A. 



by naturalists of the greatest talent, and most general 

 acquaintance, not only with every department of the 

 animal kingdom, but with the relations which subsist 

 between that kingdom and the other parts of the 

 material creation. 



There arises an argument from the practical utility, 

 which completely bears out this theory, and also 

 points out, not the advantage merely, but the abso- 

 lute necessity of every one who would wish to profit 

 by the study of animated nature, grounding himself 

 thoroughly in the principles of classification. 



It is true that empirical grounds of classification 

 have been proposed in times comparatively recent ; 

 and that by men who have made a great deal of 

 noise, and obtained an ample share of temporary 

 notoriety, if not of permanent fame. While the one 

 of these lasts it requires a good deal of penetration, 

 exercised by one who is not a follower of the multi- 

 tude, to see the distinction between it and a scientific 

 .one ; they pass with the million as having equal merit ; 

 and as the man who proceeds upon his own fancies 

 .always fights for them with more zeal and clamour 

 .than any man exercises in the cause of demon- 

 strated truth feeling that it can maintain its own 

 ground without support the majority of the multitude 

 invariably, or at least in the majority of cases, follow 

 the impostor during the day of his vapouring, and 

 leave true science to steal on with that unobtrusive 

 meekness and steadiness of march which have ever 

 been its concomitants in all its ways. The cause 

 cf the success of imposture, or folly for it is much 

 the same in effect, whether the party imposes on the 

 crowd at second hand, by first imposing on himself, 

 or whether he imposes on them at first hand, he him- 

 self not being under the influence of the imposition 

 is obvious enough. There is a moral distinction : but 

 we are not speaking of ethical principles, but of the 

 common philosophical succession of events in the order 

 .of cause and effect ; and thus far, if the effect produced 

 .by one who imposes first on himself and then upon 

 others, and one who only imposes upon others, be 

 exactly the same, the causes, how different soever 

 they may be in a moral point of view, are perfectly 

 equal in the judgment of natural philosophy, or of 

 simple philosophy of any kind, with which moral 

 considerations are in no ways mixed up. But to 

 return to the subject with which we are more imme- 

 diately concerned. 



If there is to be any use in classification, it is 

 nothing more than an enumeration of the relations in 

 which the subjects classed stand to each other, and 

 .their agreements and differences. In the classi- 

 fication of any one branch, whether large or small, of 

 . the productions of nature, regard must be had to all 

 .the rest ; for unless the reciprocal influences which 

 they exert upon each other are known, we are 

 ignorant both of the natural use, and of the appli- 

 cation which we might be enabled to make of 

 that use. 



This is the reason why so extensive a knowledge 

 . is required before any one can venture to form an 

 arrangement, and therefore if statutes for regulating 

 the modes of knowledge could be introduced without 

 any of the drawbacks and mischiefs usually connected 

 with statutism, it would be no bad law to compel 

 every projector of an innovation to prove that he 

 were more competent than the founder of the classi- 

 fication upon, which he sought to innovate. Such, at 

 all events, would spare the world the trouble of a 



whole host of small innovators, who are constantly 

 splitting hairs about genera and species, and waging 

 stern war upon some such most important point, as 

 " Whether a black nose and a grey constitute dif- 

 ferent species, different varieties, or merely point out 

 different stages of growth in the same animal ; and 

 also whether a black nose or grey nose has made the 

 nearest approach to those years of discretion, in the 

 bloom of which the disputants believe themselves to 

 be wantoning." 



So much time is wasted upon matters analogous 

 to those we have now mentioned, among the junior 

 labourers in the field of natural science, that the sub- 

 ject assumes an importance, in a precautionary point 

 of view, to which its intrinsic merits would never 

 entitle it ; nor is it altogether unamusing to observe 

 how these doughty disputes fine away, like the tail of 

 a streak of curl-cloud, till they melt into thin air. 

 They put one strongly in mind of the ultimate argu- 

 ment of the one grammarian to the other, which is 

 recorded to have been adduced at the end of a long 

 and wordy disputation on the grave question as to 

 " Whether the implied nominatives of impersonal 

 verbs are entities or quiddities?" " The lord con- 

 found thee for thy theory from personal verbs!" said 

 the enraged grammarian ; and at this point both lan- 

 guage and logic broke down, so that there was a 

 final end at that time, and the question remains as 

 ready for fresh disputation as ever. 



As we have said, the classification of natural sub- 

 jects of any kind ought to be so framed as to involve 

 their uses as much as possible, and this is the reason 

 why a system grounded on the general organisation 

 | of animals is so superior to every other. The mam- 

 malia, as having their organisation the most complete, 

 afford the best means of obtaining an understanding 

 of the principle ; and considering these, the system of 

 Cuvier is superior to every other which has been 

 proposed. The discovery of new species, and a more 

 intimate acquaintance with the structure and habits 

 : of those which are but imperfectly known, must of 

 j course lead, and has in fact already led, to minor 

 I changes such as the transfer of a few animals from 

 I one part of the system to another. In all this, ho\v- 

 I ever, there is nothing by which the fundamental 

 principles of Cuvier's arrangement have been, or 

 apparently can be, substantially shaken, at least until 

 j much further discovery has been made in the science. 



The great skill and the unwearied industry which 

 Cuvier brought to the investigation of the structures 

 of animals, and the fact of his taking the extinct as 

 well as the existing, in so far as the evidence enabled 

 him, placed him on a vantage ground which no pre- 

 vious classifier had occupied. Ray perhaps came 

 the nearest to him ; and, like Cuvier, he studied long 



I before he ventured to put the knowledge he hud 

 ! acquired into a scientific form. Ray laboured, how- 



ever, under the disadvantage of having but scanty 

 I materials as compared with the other ; and therefore, 

 ! though it is impossible to study his works without 

 ' great profit, as well as great admiration, the labours 



of Cuvier are much better calculated for bringing 

 ' the subject readily, clearly, and speedily before the 

 i reader. So that if any one wishes to be a naturalist, 

 especially a student of the mammalia, the " Regne 

 Animal" is the indispensable text book. Indeed, it 

 possesses an advantage which few, if any, other text- 

 books possess. Such books, whatever may be their 

 subject,, are, generally speaking, artificial memories of 



