BARONT CUVIER. 147 



tlie facility which a naturahst may find in ar- 

 ranging them into a simple series. 



" Nevertheless, to the hypothesis of a con- 

 tinued scale in the forms of beings, other philo- 

 sophers have added that in which all beings are 

 modifications of one only ; or, that they have 

 been produced successively, and by the deve- 

 lopement of one first germ ; and it is on this 

 that an identity of composition for all has been 

 engrafted. . . This system (as it now exists) seizes 

 hold of some partial resemblances, without hav- 

 ing any regard to differences ; it sees in the worm 

 the embryo of the vertebrated animal ; in the 

 vertebrated animal with cold blood, the embryo 

 of the animal with warm blood ; it thus makes 

 one class spring from the other; they are but 

 different ages of one only; and the whole of 

 animal life has the same phases as the most 

 perfect individual of its species. From this na- 

 turally arises the consequence that, taking the 

 superior classes in an embryo state, we ought 

 there to find the inferior parts, and that the 

 composition of all must be alike, except the 

 greater or lesser developement of certain parts. 

 But these affinities, which oflfer something like 

 plausibility when announced in general terms, 

 vanish directly they are detailed, and a com- 

 L 2 



