1 1 66 The System of Nature. 



means of his concentric circles, the stations which he assigns to the 

 marsupials in the chronological history of our globe. The examina- 

 tion of the remains of these intermediate beings, indicates that their 

 first appearance on the earth was intermediate between the oviparous 

 and placental Vertebrata. They have been found in the schist at 

 Stonesfield, and the question is therefore set at rest : but had it not 

 been so, had the recent animals not yet been discovered, we must 

 have conjecturally assigned them the intermediate organization which 

 they possess, and thus predicated their existence, as Kant is known 

 to have done that of minor planets, which have since been discovered. 

 Natura enim non facit saltus. 



And here we venture one remark. Mr. Newman places the marsu- 

 pials at the same distance from man as the cartilaginous fishes and 

 the Reptilia Cataphracta. We doubt the correctness of this. Are 

 these three classes equidistant from the placentals ? We think not : 

 we think the cartilaginous fishes should be more remote ; and we fear 

 Mr. Newman has been led away by his favourite number three, which 

 he constantly reproduces throughout his classification. In order to 

 obviate this objection, or rather to reply to it, our author tells us that 

 seemingly cabalistic numbers are " the result of a principle, and not 

 the principle itself." And the result of what principle ? Of the ap- 

 proximation of like to like ? We cannot understand how the number 

 three results from such a principle ; and as we are considering this 

 subject, let us remember that in his ninth chapter, the author, when 

 laying down the general disposition of the groups, informs us that the 

 principle which predominates in his plan, and leads to the result of 

 facts, is, " that every natural group appears divisible into four minor 

 groups, three of which are double, and surround the fourth, which is 

 central and single." 



Assuredly, nothing can be more seductive than the simplicity and 

 order of the proposed divisions, either to the mind which has conceiv- 

 ed them, or the eye charmed by such regularity. But is this order so 

 perfect, so consummate, produced solely by Nature ? We have felt 

 doubts, perhaps ill-founded, but still, we acknowledge it, we have sus- 

 pected something artificial. The illustrations which Mr. Newman 

 should have given in many parts of his work, might have dispelled 

 this, but he has not given them ; and lacking these, we have inquired 

 whether — supposing that Nature worked in this symmetrical matter — 

 we are acquainted with the intermediate degrees, and whether, in or- 

 der to find them, we may not do violence to analogies ; and whether 

 such an instance do not occur at p. 36, where, for the purpose of 



