NATURAL HISTORY OF CREATION, 199 



being one of mere analogy. Mr. Swainson therefore 

 considers our race as standing apart, and forming a 

 link between the unintelligent order of beings and the 

 angels ! And this in spite of the glaring fact, that in 

 our teeth, hands, and other features grounded on by 

 naturalists as characteristic, we do not differ more from 

 the simiadai than the bats do from the lemurs — in spite 

 also of that resemblance of analogy to the ourangs which 

 he himself admits, and wdiich, at the least, must be held 

 to imply a certain relation. He also overlooks that, 

 though there may be no room for man in the circle of 

 the simiadre — this, indeed, is quite true — there may be 

 in the order, where he actually leaves a place entirely 

 blank, or only to be filled up, as he suggests, by mer- 

 men ! * Another argument against his arrangement is, 

 that it leaves the grades of classification very much 

 abridged, there being at the most seven instead of nine. 

 But serious argument on a theory so preposterous may 

 be considered as nearly thrown away. I shall therefore 

 at once proceed to suggest a new arrangement of this 

 portion of the animal kingdom, in which man is allowed 

 the place to which he is zoologically entitled. 



I propose that the typical order of the mammalia 

 should be designated cheirotheria, from the sole cha- 

 racter which is universal amongst them, their possessing 

 hands, and w^ith a regard to that pre-eminent qualifica- 

 tion for grasping which has been ascribed to them — 

 an analogy to the perching habit of the typical order 

 of birds, which is worthy of particular notice. The 

 tribes of the cheirotheria I arrange as follows : — 



* Mr. Swainsou's arguments about the entireness of the circle 

 simiadse are only too rigid, for fossil geology has since added new 

 genera to this group and the cebida?, and there may be still farther 

 additions. 



