SPECIES. 109 



tween ancestors and descendants such as would suffice, in any 

 other zoological group, to characterise distinct species. 



In regarding man as a separate kingdom, we are, by this 

 fact, exempted from applying the same rules as in zoology; 

 but, by proving that he comes into the zoological series, we 

 have implicitly proved that he must be submitted to the same 

 laws. Science cannot have two different modes of proceeding : 

 it must follow the same paths in the same subjects in order to 

 arrive at comparable results. It is the only truly philosophic 

 road : nature is one, and the work of the modern sciences is 

 precisely to tend towards unity. The most diverse phenomena 

 in the hands of analysts compare and assimilate themselves to 

 the rays of a spirit of synthesis ; magnetism, electricity, light, 

 heat, motion, everything is mingled and linked together so 

 well, that we know not how to make a distinction any more. 



The pure and simple adoption of the law of organic unity 

 brings us to the following proposition : 



PROPOSITION. Either we must admit different species in the 

 genus Homo, or we must entirely reform zoological classification. 



This last hypothesis will mean, then, that the works of 

 Linnaeus, Cuvier, De Blainville, and the two Greoffroys, will be 

 of no value, and that we must commence anew the great work 

 of classification upon the same basis which we wish to adopt 

 in anthropology. Of the two terms of the preceding propo- 

 sition, the second merits particular consideration. Zoological 

 classification has been created and established by the greatest 

 thinkers of which humanity can boast ; even more, indepen- 

 dent by its nature from all religious influence, it has been 

 freely done, and without prejudice, as every scientific question 

 ought to be, by means of facts and reasoning. It has not 

 always been so with the works of those who desire that man 

 should be an exception to universal nature, and beyond the 

 limits of the animal kingdom. Zoological classification need 

 not be reformed, it is that of the genus Homo. 



We touch now on the much discussed and controverted 

 question of species, and at the same time on the question of 

 the origin of man. We do not believe, as many eminent men 

 have done, that this origin must eternally be concealed, that 



