246 The Progress of Zoology . 



zoology and botany, in an especial sense, not because they treat 

 of natural objects, for all sciences do that, but because their 

 subjects are almost wholly contemporaneous, and those that are 

 not so may be made so by the aid of analogy ; so that even 

 palseontology may be studied at the Zoological Gardens, and 

 recent species among the models of extinct forms in the Crystal 

 Palace. What Margaret Fuller expected of the sculptor may 

 be as well expected also of the zoologist : — 



" If he already sees what he must do, 

 Well may he shade his eyes from the far-seeing view." 



Student and professor are alike concerned in one effort, and 

 that is the separation of the natural from the artificial, and the 

 proven from the conjectural, in all inquiries and all accumu- 

 lations of facts. At the very threshold of zoology we perceive 

 that there are many stumbling-blocks, and if we escape those 

 without damage, we next perceive that there is a sort of anta- 

 gonism between man and nature, the one insisting on creating, 

 if he cannot find, a system, the other insisting that every fact 

 shall stand for itself, and every creature enjoy an independent 

 sovereignty. No doubt the plants and animals that re- 

 deem the world from stony deadness are so many members 

 of a system as truly mathematical as the law which governs 

 the relationships of the planets, but man has not yet dis- 

 covered what that system is ; and until he has mastered the 

 last little item of organography, he must perforce rely upon 

 invention, and classify his knowledge by artificial rules. It is 

 a wonderful testimony to man's power of perception and ana- 

 lysis that since the second edition of Cuvier's Bijgne Animal 

 there have been scarcely any contributions to the classification 

 of animated nature of a character to influence deeply the 

 aspects of the science. Even those of Professor Owen, who, 

 pursuing the indications of analogy with the instinct of a poet, 

 has only been able to rectify in some few particulars the de- 

 ficiencies of Cuvier's magnificent scheme. In fact it is no 

 easier for Owen than it was for Cuvier or Linnasus to define 

 on what grounds a class, order, or genus shall be formed. 

 Nature has no classes, no orders, no genera, she fashions crea- 

 tures to lead a certain life, and places them in the conditions 

 requisite to their well-being, and with a defiant nonchalance 

 says, " Group them as you please '" and all that we can do is 

 to define apparent relationships, and make a sort of artificial 

 memory out of the signs presented to us. The acquisitions of 

 anatomy and physiology have favoured the study of zoology in 

 connection with the homologies of internal structure, and 

 rendered zoology more recondite in the exact proportion in 

 which its tests and comparisons have been removed from 



