220 Miscellaneous. 
artificial, differing from one another only in degree, all having origi- 
nated from a successive differentiation of a primordial organic form, 
undergoing successively such changes as would at first produce a 
variety of species; then genera, as the difference became more exten- 
sive and deeper; then families, as the gap widened still further 
between the groups, until in the end all that diversity was produced 
which has existed or exists now. Far from agreeing with these views, 
I have, on the contrary, taken the ground that all the natural divi- 
sions in the animal kingdom are primarily distinct, founded upon 
different categories of characters, and that all exist in the same way, 
that is, as categories of thought, embodied in individual living forms. 
I have attempted to show that branches in the animal kingdom are 
founded upon different plans of structure, and for that very reason 
have embraced from the beginning representatives between which 
there could be no community of origin ; that classes are founded upon 
different modes of execution of these plans, and therefore they also 
embrace representatives which could have no community of origin ; 
that orders represent the different degrees of complication in the 
mode of execution of each class, and therefore embrace representatives 
which could not have a community of origin any more than the 
members of different classes or branches ; that families are founded 
upon different patterns of form, and embrace representatives equally 
independent in their origin ; that genera are founded upon ultimate 
peculiarities of structure, embracing representatives which, from the 
very nature of their peculiarities, could have no community of origin ; 
and that, finally, species are based upon relations and proportions that 
exclude, as much as all the preceding distinctions, the idea of a 
common descent. 
As the community of characters among the beings belonging to 
these different categories arises from the intellectual connexion which 
shows them to be categories of thought, they cannot be the result of 
a gradual material differentiation of the objects themselves. The 
argument on which these views are founded may be summed up in 
the following few words :—species, genera, families, &c. exist as 
thoughts, individuals as facts. It is presented at full length in the 
first volume of this work (pp. 137-168), where I have shown that 
individuals alone have a definite material existence, and that they 
are, for the time being, the bearers not only of specific characteristics, 
but of all the natural features in which animal life is displayed in ” 
all its diversity,—individuality being, in fact, the great mystery of 
organic life. 
Since the arguments presented by Darwin in favour of a universal 
derivation, from one primary form, of all the peculiarities existing now 
among living beings have not made the slightest impression on my 
mind, nor modified in any way the views I have already propounded, 
I may fairly refer the reader to the paragraphs alluded to above as 
containing sufficient evidence of their correctness, and I will here 
only add a single argument, which seems to leave the question where 
I have placed it. 
It seems to me that there is much confusion of ideas in the general 
