Classification . 1945 



group them into larger and subordinate divisions, each recognizable 

 by some character possessed in common by the species included, to 

 which a name could be applied, expressing at once a large number of 

 different forms, and rendering the maze into which the naturalist was 

 led a little less intricate. The science continuing to advance, having 

 received fresh impetus from the introduction of this useful help, the 

 imperfections of the system adopted were soon perceived, while at the 

 same time the facilities which Nature gave for the arrangement of her 

 forms maintained the universal opinion that she had a classification 

 of her own, and to discover it was a goal, the attainment of which was 

 by many considered as constituting the entire philosophy of the 

 science. One set of naturalists, at a time not long gone by, and in- 

 cluding some of the most eminent of their day, firmly believed it was 

 attained ; and as confidently maintained that Nature's arrangement 

 was circular, as it had formerly been considered to be linear, even 

 specifying the number of forms, or groups of forms, requisite to make 

 a circle complete, and holding out that all that remained to be disco- 

 vered was the links that still were wanting, yet must either exist, or 

 have existed at some period since the commencement of organic life 

 upon our globe. In short, had this enchanting dream of a discovery 

 at all savoured of reality, the whole science of Natural History would 

 have been very comparable to some of those well-established princi- 

 ples in Natural Philosophy, the effects of whose operation may always 

 be predicted, in cases which neither observation nor experiment has 

 ever yet realized before our senses. There lay in the foundation of 

 this theory some very erroneous presumptions, the crumbling away of 

 which was quite sufficient in itself to make the superstructure fall to 

 the ground : it was contended that the species was the only adopted 

 division not existing in Nature ; that the higher divisions were per- 

 fectly natural; and that the rule for ascertaining them w r as, their 

 completing the required number of which each circle should consist, 

 and the correspondence of each group in its own circle with one 

 forming part of every other throughout the series. Easy indeed is 

 the task, amidst the innumerable degrees and shades of difference 

 which creatures of complex organization may present, to select such 

 characters as, by including a greater or less number of species in each 

 group, shall bring the number of groups to any standard, such as bi- 

 nary, ternary, quinary, or whatever our fancy may suggest, and to 

 hunt out some little peculiarity by which each division may be asso- 

 ciated with another in a different circle. 



Indeed the erroneous nature of many of the " affinities " supposed, 



