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CHAPTER VI. 

 THE PROGRESS OF SYSTEMATIC ZOOLOGY. 



THE history of Systematic Botany, as we have 

 presented it, may be considered as a sufficient 

 type of the general order of progression in the sci- 

 ences of classification. It has appeared, in the survey 

 which we have had to give, that this science, no less 

 than those which we first considered, has been formed 

 by a series of inductive processes, and has, in its 

 history, Epochs at which, by such processes, decided 

 advances were made. The important step in such 

 cases is, the seizing upon some artificial mark which 

 conforms to natural resemblances ; some basis of 

 arrangement and nomenclature by means of which 

 true propositions of considerable generality can be 

 enunciated. The advance of other classificatory 

 sciences, as well as botany, must consist of such 

 steps ; and their course, like that of botany, must 

 (if we attend only to the real additions made to 

 knowledge,) be gradual and progressive, from the 

 earliest times to the present. 



To exemplify this continued and constant pro- 

 gression in the whole range of zoology, would 

 require vast knowledge and great labour ; and is, 

 perhaps, the less necessary, after we have dwelt so 

 long on the history of botany, considered in the 

 same point of view. But there are a few observa- 



