1 82 NATURAL HISTORY. 



the true relationships of animals. One fact sufficiently 

 proves this namely, that in deference to the mystical 

 * quinary' law, the Mammals are divided into only five 

 groups or orders ; whereas naturalists consider that there 

 are at least fifteen or sixteen natural orders of these 

 animals. 



The ' circular classification ' is, then, a mere figment 

 of the human mind; the notion of a quinary, ternary, 

 or septenary division of animals is equally a product 

 of the imagination. So far as our present knowledge 

 goes, two things are abundantly evident. One of these 

 is, that no numerically symmetrical arrangement of animals 

 can, by any possibility, accord with their natural affinities 

 and relationships. The other is, that any pictorial 

 representation of the different groups of the animal series 

 in the order of their natural alliances would assuredly 

 not present us with a system of similar closed circles, 

 but with a branched and ramified genealogical tree. 

 One main trunk we should undoubtedly find; and this 

 would give off numerous lateral stems, which would in 

 turn subdivide, some branches ascending in the course 

 of their development, while others, in consequence of 

 degeneration, would descend. No numerical law could, 

 however, possibly be formulated which would express the 

 branching of the main stem of life ; nor would there be 

 any parity of size, or equality in zoological value, between 

 the different branches of the parent trunk. 



