1954 Classification. 



more philosophic naturalists, show clearly, in those departments of 

 the science to which their labours have been directed, the advantages 

 of such a system of study as that here feebly attempted to be pointed 

 out; and the former errors which they have succeeded in exposing, 

 together with the precision of their results when compared with the 

 confusion formerly existing, seem of themselves sufficient to convince 

 that a great work of correction remains to be carried out, involving a 

 long series of patient and profound investigations, which it must re- 

 quire the unwearied exertions of many to accomplish. 



If, in what is known already, we perceive sufficient to convince us 

 that affinities really have existence in Nature, we need no longer 

 doubt the importance, indeed the necessity, of ascertaining them to 

 the furthest extent possible ; for the course of scientific investigation 

 has in all cases shown, that every newly-discovered law of Nature, 

 when the effects of its operation are carefully deduced, opens out a 

 still wider field for research, leading to further and often higher gene- 

 ralizations : in the present case, relations are continually being per- 

 ceived between certain groups of forms and certain geographical 

 limits, it being often seen that such members of a large group as are 

 confined within a certain locality show affinities among themselves 

 uniting them into a smaller group ; sometimes while one group has 

 extensive distribution, another, seemingly of equal rank, is more con- 

 fined ; and in certain cases, a species, or group of species, in one part 

 of the world, so represents another in a different region, by perform- 

 ing similar functions, that the affinity between them has, from the re- 

 semblance of their adaptive characters, been considered to be closer 

 than it really is. Such things, at present only known as curious and 

 interesting facts, may perhaps, when affinities are better understood 

 and thoroughly worked out, lead to generalizations at present not 

 imagined ; these, united with researches continually in progress on 

 forms existing at different epochs, may, it is not impossible, carry us 

 still further in our investigation of those laws by which the varied in- 

 habitants of our earth have been distributed upon its surface, their in- 

 fluence in its changes, and the consequent alterations which have been 

 caused in their location ; indeed it is impossible to predict, in search- 

 ing after one small truth, what treasures we may pick up on the way, 

 or what brilliant lights may open to us on its discovery. Then cer- 

 tainly it is not just, that the science which treats of Nature's forms 

 should be looked upon as less worthy of pursuit, by men of highest 

 mind, when its backward state is only owing to its vast extent ; and 

 even the classification and arrangement of the different forms in which 

 organic life appears (which, as they themselves arc compared to the 



