CLASSIFICATION. 393 



eluded in one of the primary assemblages, is characterized by 

 further common attributes that influence the functions less 

 profoundly. And so on with each lower grade. 



§ 103. What interpretation is to be put on these truths of 

 classification? We find that organic forms admit of an 

 arrangement everywhere indicating the fact, that along with 

 certain attributes, certain other attributes, which are not 

 directly connected with them, always exist. How are we 

 to account for this fact? And how are we to account for 

 the fact that the attributes possessed in common by the 

 largest assemblages of forms, are the most vitally-important 

 attributes ? 



No one can believe that combinations of this kind have 

 arisen fortuitously. Even supposing fortuitous combina- 

 tions of attributes might produce organisms that would work, 

 we should still be without a clue to this special mode of 

 combination. The chances would be infinity to one against 

 organisms which possessed in common certain fundamental 

 attributes, having also in common numerous non-essential 

 attributes. 



Nor, again, can any one allege that such combinations are 

 necessary, in the sense that all other combinations are im- 

 practicable. There is not, in the nature of things, a reason 

 why creatures covered with feathers should always have 

 beaks: jaws carrying teeth would, in many cases, have 

 served them equally well or better. The most general 

 characteristic of an entire sub-kingdom, equal in extent 

 to the Vertehrata, might have been the possession of nicti- 

 tating membranes; while the internal organizations through- 

 out this sub-kingdom might have been on many different 

 plans. 



If, as an alternative, this peculiar subordination of traits 

 which organic forms display be ascribed to design, other 

 difficulties suggest themselves. To suppose that a certain 

 plan of organization was fixed on by a Creator for each vast 



