PROGRESS OF SYSTEMATIC ZOOLOGY. 385 



these, fishes, both viviparous and oviparous; then 

 birds ; then land animals, both viviparous and ovi- 

 parous." 



It is clear from this passage that Aristotle had 

 certain wide and indefinite views of classification, 

 which though not very exact, are still highly credit- 

 able to him; but it is equally clear that he was 

 quite unconscious of the classification that has been 

 ascribed to him. If he had adopted that or any 

 other system, this was precisely the place in which 

 he must have referred to and employed it. 



The honour due to the stupendous accumulation 

 of zoological knowledge which Aristotle's works 

 contain, cannot be tarnished by our denying him 

 the credit of a system which he never dreamt of, 

 and which, from the nature of the progress of 

 science, could not possibly be constructed at that 

 period. But, in reality, we may exchange the mis- 

 taken claims which we have been contesting for a 

 better, because a truer praise. Aristotle does show, 

 as far as could be done at his time, a perception of 

 the need of groups, and of names of groups, in the 

 study of the animal kingdom ; and thus may justly 

 be held up as the great figure in the Prelude to 

 the Formation of Systems which took place in more 

 advanced scientific times. 



This appears, in some measure, from the passage 



last quoted. For not only is there, in that, a clear 



recognition of the value and object of a method in 



natural history ; but the general arrangement of 



VOL. in. C c 



