38 



CHAPTER III. 



THE OEDEE OF BIMANA. 



THE naturalist who has in our time most interested himself in 

 the classification of vertebrata, Prince Charles Bonaparte, gives 

 his own opinion as follows : " Man may be considered, in one 

 point of view, as constituting one single family ; in another, 

 as constituting an entire kingdom." But he also adds that 

 in this second case, " the characteristics are no longer in har- 

 mony with the rest of the system." In fact, we can hardly at 

 the same time admit both the general principles of classifica- 

 tion, as followed at the present day, and also the human king- 

 dom. One out of these two things must fall to the ground. 

 The system of classifying mammalia, adopted in all its 

 uniformity by the two Geoffreys, the Cuviers, De Blainville, 

 and Owen, cannot be maintained without involving man- 

 kind. If man were a kingdom by himself, this classification 

 would be a false one ; for ought we not then, at least, to create 

 a cetaceous kingdom, a bird kingdom, etc. ? As for ourselves, 

 the problem has been already solved, and we hesitated to 

 come into collision with this new inconsistency. Harmony is 

 the necessary condition of every really natural system. We 

 cannot arbitrarily give a different value to the same character- 

 istics ; and, reciprocally, the divisions of the same order ought 

 necessarily to agree with characteristics of the same value. 



It has been thought necessary, at least, to create for man- 

 kind one of those great divisions into which the mammalia are 

 divided. An Order of Simana has been created. We do not 

 hesitate to say that this was a purely theoretical creation ; and 

 we will go even farther, we declare it could only be produced 



