280 REVIEWS PRINCIPLES OF ORGANIC ARCHITECTURE. 



are not either prepared to condemn as erroneous, on what seem to us 

 abundantly sufficient reasons, independent of any numerical theory, 

 or regard as cases of imperfect knowledge and, as yet, unsettled 

 arrangement. If we could here take space for the illustration of our 

 ideas, we should choose for the purpose the great class of birds ; should 

 designate the Insessores as a great central group, peculiarly typical, 

 and range around them Eaptores, Scansores, Easores, Grallatores 

 and Natatores, whilst the Insessores themselves, placing the families 

 of Sylviadae and Fringillidae in the centre, as the most typical birds, 

 would, by the sections Dentirostres, Syndactyli, Conirostres, Tenui- 

 rostres, and Eissirostres, represent the five greater deviations from the 

 type in the order in which we have given them. In the same way the 

 families under each order and section are found to be analogous to the 

 greater divisions. What we have proposed may seem but the echo 

 of a system which has passed away, and may be condemned as an 

 attempt to fetter nature with our theories. We can but say that 

 with us it results from practical labour in an extended field, and that 

 all the theory which pertains to it is an attempt to explain and connec 

 together a series of judgments in particular cases, with, as a general 

 result, a disposition to expect that other cases of a similar kind will 

 conform to those already examined. The means of classifying well 

 are improving from day to day, with the increase of anatomical and 

 embryological knowledge, but classification has not yet improved in 

 proportion. Opinions fluctuate, and there is a feeling of the need of 

 at least very great improvements. It is a time when authority and 

 prescription lose their hold on us, and men look around in search of 

 something better, often, no doubt, falling on a wrong track, yet even 

 then, perhaps, doing something to prepare the way for more ingenious 

 or more judicious successors. We touch on the subject of classifica- 

 tion only incidentally here, and must not dwell upon it, but since, so 

 far as it is good, it expresses and conveys knowledge, and all its faults 

 mislead and embarrass students, it is worthy of all the attention we 

 can bestow upon it. 



The analogies now observed between Vertebrata and Articulata are, 

 we conceive, to be accounted for from the consideration that these two 

 sub-kingdoms exemplify the preponderance of the functions of animal 

 life, the former being the especial manifestation of power, the latter of 

 activity, whilst the Mollusca and Radiata manifest the predominance of 

 the vegetative functions and accordingly are formed on entirely differ- 



