PART III. 



ON THE FIRST PRINCIPLES OF NATURAL 

 CLASSIFICATION. 



CHAPTER I. 



THE FIRST PRINCIPLES OP THE NATURAL SYSTEM BRIEFLY 

 STATED IN FIVE PROPOSITIONS, THE FIRST THREE OF WHICH 

 ARE HERE DISCUSSED ; VIZ., THE CIRCULARITY, THE NUME- 

 RICAL DIVISION, AND THE THEORY OF REPRESENTATION. 



274.) IN submitting to the zoological world for 

 he first time in a connected form the result of our 

 researches on the first principles of the NATURAL SYSTEM, 

 it seems the most simple and preferable method to state 

 them, as heretofore *, in the form of distinct propo- 

 sitions, which we shall endeavour to substantiate by sub- 

 sequent details. 



I. That every natural series of beings, in its progress 

 from a given point, either actually returns, or evinces 

 a tendency to return, again to that point, thereby 

 forming a circle. 



II. The primary circular divisions of every group are 

 three actually, or five apparently. 



III. The contents of such a circular group are symbol- 

 ically (or analogically) represented by the contents of 

 all other circles in the animal kingdom. 



IV. That these primary divisions of every group are 

 characterised by definite peculiarities of form, struc- 

 ture, and economy, which, under diversified modi- 

 fications, are uniform throughout the animal kingdom, 



* See Fauna Boreali-Americana (Northern Zoology), vol. ii. prcf. p. 48. 



