of the Dichotomous System. 57 



reasoning," but, attempts to support them by examples. 

 Let such men but have the heedlessness to pin themselves 

 down by an example, and the utter futility of their reasoning 

 is manifest at once. He cites the chiitah for a want that only 

 proves how the genus Felis passes off to the Canine tribe. 

 And this he calls a halt ! So also he says, " Nature indulges 

 in frolicsome leaps, as in passing from the vertebral to the 

 invertebral animals, and completes the confusion of those who 

 wish to train her, by bolting off the course to convey man 

 to his rational throne." The frolicsome leap from vertebral 

 to invertebral animals I shall hereafter show to be grounded 

 on ignorance of zoology. I shall merely now ask any person, 

 whether naturalist or not. Does nature really bolt off her 

 course in conveying man to the throne of reason ? It may be 

 indeed that her paces are not always equal — that I believe to 

 be truly the case; but nevertheless she remains steadily on 

 the course, and if she has put man on the throne, she has also 

 placed a series of animals on the steps that lead up to it. 

 Some persons indeed have doubted, whether those steps on 

 which she has placed the ourang-outang and some savage 

 tribes of man, ought upon the whole to be considered the 

 widest apart; and were it not that man possesses the gift of 

 speech, they would so doubt with reason. There is no occa- 

 sion, therefore, " to hope for the discovery of a semirational 

 species to fill up the greatest gap that exists." 



But, after all, this has really little to do with our present 

 subject, unless Dr. Fleming be a materialist. We are now 

 discussing the forms of matter, and unless Dr. F. thinks 

 that mind is matter, he has no business to bring his reason 

 upon the carpet. In their corporeal structure the ourang- 

 outang and negro differ but little — it is degrading to think 

 how little. It has however pleased the Deity to distinguish 

 man by adding to his body a conscious immaterial being, en- 

 dowed with a degree of free agency sufficient to render it 

 morally responsible to its Creator. Bovtevrixov h povov av8gwTio$ 

 e<m tcov facov' xaj javyjpjg /xev v.cm d^a^s tioWu. xoivoovel, ava- 

 {Ai[x.vYi>rx.;o-Qu.i h ovfav aXKo Ivvarai ttAvjv avQgoowo;. (Arist. Hist, 

 Anim. lib. i. c. 1. Ed. Schneid.) Secondary operative causes 

 are no doubt constructed, like forms of matter, also on a wise 

 plan; but if Dr. Fleming wishes to form a Dichotomous 

 System of them, I fear he must patiently wait for his departure 

 from a world which has furnished us only with senses capable 

 of distinguishing the various forms of matter. 



[To be continued.] 

 N.S. Vol. 8. No. 43. July 1830. I XII. Pro- 



