ON THE MORPHOLOGICAL VIKW UF NATUKK. 255 



tinally in 1817 to establish the four great classes — the 

 vertebrate, the molluscous, the articulate, and radiated 

 types — in the animal kingdom. His colleague had con- 

 tributed much to Cuvier's work, but had been increas- 

 ingly struck by what lie termed the " unity of organic 

 composition," which he evermore looked upon as a key ^ 

 to the comprehension of nature : he searched for one 

 ]ilan or type where Cuvier saw four types. In 1818 

 lie published his principle in a celebrated work with 

 the title, ' Theorie des Analogies, ou de I'hilosophie 

 Anatomique.' " It has been correctly stated that he 

 only gives more precise expression to a truth known 

 to Aristotle and proclaimed by Buffon, that the mystery 

 of ort^anisation consists in " unity of plan combined with 42. 



'^ ^ iT Cuvier and 



variety of composition." Cuvier emphasised and studied Geooroy. 

 the latter, his colleague the former. For an intimate 

 knowledge and description of natural objects the work 

 of distinguishing is all important; for a comprehension 

 of nature the connection of things, the unity of plan, 

 the filiation and relations of beings, the mutability of 

 species, will ever be the more important and fascinating. 

 The former was a purely scientific, the latter a philo- 



' See Goethe's detailed Keport, 

 loc. cit., W^erke IL vol. vii. p. 173. 

 A very full account of this cele- 

 brated controversy is also given in 

 the i>osthumous work of Ducrotay 

 de Blaiuville, ' Cuvier et Geuffroy 

 Saint-Hilaire, Biographies scientif- 

 iques,' ed. Nicard, Paris, 1890, 

 pp. 3o7-378, which is specially in- 

 teresting, because Geotfroj''s ideas 

 were there traced to Lamarck (p. 

 351), of whom Goethe takes no 

 notice. , 



2 See the " Eloge Historique 

 d'Etienne Geoffrey vSaint-Hilaire," 



par P. Flourens, in the third volume 

 of his ' Recueil des Eloges,' &c., 

 Paris, 1862, pp. 229-281. He quotes, 

 inter alid, a passage from Vicq- 

 d'Azyr : " La nature seuible operer 

 toujours d'aprcs un modele primitif 

 et g^ndral dont elle ne s'ecarte qu' 

 b, regret, et dont on rencontre par- 

 tout des traces. ... On observe 

 partout ces deu.x charactores (|ue la 

 nature semble avoir imprimes li tous 

 lea etres, celui de la coustance dans 

 le type et celui de la variott^ dans 

 les modifications," &c. (p. 276). 



