ILLUSTRATION OP TYPICAL AND CONNECTING FORMS. 57 



between England and Scotland ; the residents on the two sides 

 of the Border having many of the characteristics of both nations, 

 so that the English character is not fully displayed in the northern 

 counties of England, nor the Scotch in the most southern parts of 

 Scotland. Further, as each nation may be supposed to be sur- 

 rounded, not by one, but by several others, it will have a tendency 

 to blend in this manner with them all; so that of its national 

 peculiarities, some are lost as we pass in one direction, some in 

 another, thus gradually obliterating the differences which may 

 exist between itself and the various peoples that surround it. By 

 this comparison we may represent the manner, in which natural 

 families, each consisting of several distinct genera, are related to 

 each other ; and in which they tend to unite, through links of con- 

 nection, which are formed by the blending of the characters of 

 two or more in the same tribe. 



38. Lastly, we shall suppose all the nations inhabiting one 

 continent, or quarter of the globe, to have certain points of gene- 

 ral resemblance to each other, whilst differing in a large number of 

 characters ; and that those by which other continents are peopled, 

 also agree among themselves, and differ from the rest in the same 

 manner. Although, in consequence of the more distinct separa- 

 tion between the regions they respectively inhabit, there might 

 not be so much tendency to the blending of the characters of those 

 different races, which live most near to each other on the borders 

 of their respective continents, yet some approximation might 

 be expected ; and this would take place on the same plan, 

 the characters of the nations that live on the borders of 

 any continent, partaking in some degree of those of the people 

 of other continents on the opposite side of their respective boun- 

 daries. In this manner we may represent the relationships 

 that exist between the orders, into which the families are 

 united, or between the classes, which are formed by the union 

 of orders, or between the sub-kingdoms, or primary subdivi- 

 sions of the Animal Kingdom, which are formed by a union of 

 classes. 



39. It is probable, that every natural group, if we were in 



