THE COASTS OP SICILY. 39 



of beings independently, and in accordance with the 

 character which they represent by their properties 

 and organisation. We shall also see how necessary 

 it is not to abstract any one of these relations, or 

 any one of the links, which unite it either to the 

 most nearly allied beings, or to others. If we once 

 assume this point of view, the difficulties of the 

 question will vanish, and everything will present 

 itself simply and readily to the observation of the 

 naturalist. Our systematic methods of classification 

 only take into account the most proximate relations ; 

 they simply place a being between two other beings, 

 and hence they are constantly at fault. The true 

 natural method regards every organised being as if 

 it were placed in the midst of all the others, it indi- 

 cates all the radiations by which it is more or less 

 closely connected with the meshes of that immense 

 network which constitutes organised nature, and it 

 is only by this method that we can attain to elevated, 

 true, and grand ideas of nature worthy of herself 

 and of the Creator. Indeed, ten or twenty links 

 would often be insufficient to express these innumer- 

 able relations." * 



What then is that Ariadne's clue, which, guiding 

 the naturalist through the labyrinth, will enable him 

 to see and comprehend, in the case of each of the 

 beings which he is studying, these ten or twenty 

 links of which Cuvier speaks ? This great man 



* Cuvier has often been reproached for having made classi- 

 fication the aim and object of zoology, but the passage which I have 

 literally transcribed will sljow how unfounded is such an accusation. 

 See the introduction to VHistoire Naturelle des Poissons, tome l er . 



D 4 



