CHAPTER II 



THE CLASSIFICATION OF ANIMALS 



THE Kingdom of Nature is a literal Kingdom. Order 

 and beauty, law and dependence, are seen everywhere. 

 Amidst the great diversity of the forms of life, there is 

 unity ; and this suggests that there is one general plan, 

 but carried out in a variety of ways. 



Naturalists have ceased to believe that each animal 

 or group is a distinct, circumscribed idea. " Every ani- 

 mal has a something in common with all its fellows : 

 much with many of them ; more with a few ; and, 

 usually, so much with several, that it differs but little 

 from them." The object of classification is to bring 

 together the like, and to separate the unlike. But how 

 shall this be done ? To a-rrange a library in alphabeti- 

 cal order, or according to size, binding, date, or lan- 

 guage, would be unsatisfactory. We must be guided by 

 some essential character. We must decide whether a 

 book is poetry or prose; if poetry, whether dramatic, 

 epic, lyric, or satiric ; if prose, whether history, philoso- 

 phy, theology, philology, science, fiction, or essay. The 

 more we subdivide? these groups, the more difficult the 

 analysis. 



A classification of animals, founded on external re- 

 semblances as size, color, or adaptation to similar 

 habits of life would be worthless. It would bring 

 together fishes and whales, birds and bats, worms and 

 eels. Nor should it be based on any one character, as 

 the quality of the blood, structure of the heart, develop- 

 ment of the brain, embryo life, etc. ; for no character is 



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