532 REVIEWS — TOPICAL EORMS AND 



no pathway, or as iii a vast storehouse, where the seeds of every spe- 

 cies of plant on the earth's surface are mixed in hopeless confusion. 

 By what means is it that man is enabled to arrange into groups the 

 objects by which he is surrounded, and thus acquire a scientific know- 

 ledge of them, and turn them to practical purposes ? Plainly by 

 reason of the circumstance that there are numberless points of resem- 

 blance and correspondence between them. Scientific men have so 

 long been familiar with this process that they are not impressed by it 

 as they ought, and seldom do they enquire into the ground on which 

 it proceeds. It is only when something new, such as the discovery 

 of homologies in the animal kingdom, comes to light, that they are 

 led to reflect on what has been too common to be specially noticed. 

 But if they but seriously reflect on the subject, they will find that it 

 is because of the universal prevalence of points of resemblance and 

 correspondence, that man is enabled to group the infinity of objects 

 which fall under his view, into classes and sub-classes, which can be 

 comprehended by the intellect, and treasured up in the memory-" 

 And again : 



11 Everything has, after all, a final cause The general order pervading 

 nature is just a final cause of a higher and more archetypal character. 

 In the special principle we have every organ suited to its function ; 

 in the more genei - al principle, we find all the objects in nature suited 

 to man, who has to study and to use them. Professor Owen has de- 

 clared that his practical assistant found himself greatly aided in set- 

 ting up the bones of the skull, by proceeding on the principle that 

 they were constructed on the vertebrate type. Lecturers on anatomy 

 find their students following them much more readily when they ex- 

 pound the skeleton on the archetypal idea. It is only by proceeding 

 on some such method that the nomenclature of comparative anatomy 

 can be retained by the memory. Without some such principle there 

 would require to be one set of names for the bones in man, another 

 set for the bones in quadrupeds, and a third and a fourth set for the 

 bones of birds and fishes. By the discovery of homologous parts run- 

 ning through all, it has been found possible to devise a common no- 

 menclature, admitting of application to all vertebrate animals. But 

 let it be observed that it is not the unity of nomenclature which gives 

 the unity to nature, but it is the unity of nature which has given 

 a unity to human science, and the nomenclature which science em- 

 ploys." 



With the view expressed in these quotations we fully agree. 

 Taking for granted that there is a God, " the Almighty Maker of 

 heaven and earth ;" and seeking reverently to interpret the order, 



