546 Classification of Animals. 



essentially contributed to do so, still we assert that the discovery of 

 the great principles or laws of the natural system originated with, 

 and emanated from, a British naturalist." It is to the enlightened 

 author of the philosophic pages of the " Horo? Entomological" that 

 we owe the first announcement and demonstration of the circular dis- 

 position of affinities in natural groups, and of every such group be- 

 ing constituted of a certain or definite number. He also obtained 

 the first perception of the theory of representation or symbolical re- 

 semblance, though he then supposed it partial, and was not aware 

 of that universal application to which the researches of Mr Swain- 

 son shews it to be entitled ; he also clearly pointed out the proper dis- 

 tinctions between relations of affinity and those of analogy, which 

 had previously been confounded together, and proved what had only 

 been hinted or glanced at by Lamarck, viz. that the series of affi- 

 nities is not simple or linear, but of a complex and branching nature. 

 These discoveries, of such importance to zoological science, and first 

 promulgated in this masterly treatise, though rejected as innovations, 

 or rather refused to be entertained by the bigoted adherents of arti- 

 ficial or nomenclatural system, were speedily embraced, to a greater 

 or less extent, by several of the most eminent and rising naturalists 

 of the day ; and it was not long before the ornithological department 

 of the science was subjected to the test of the M'Leayan theory. 

 This was performed by Mr Vigors in his valuable essay upon 

 the " Natural Affinities which connect the Orders and Families of 

 Birds," in which the circular and quinary disposition of that class 

 is ably and satisfactorily shewn to exist in its primary groups. But 

 among the early followers and disciples of Mr M'Leay, no one 

 entered the field of investigation with greater ardour, or has carried 

 out his principles to such an extent, or so satisfactory a result, as 

 the gifted author of the volumes now before us. Mr Swainson, we 

 are of opinion, and in this opinion we are confirmed by the result of 

 our own investigations, has, in the works he has already published, 

 not only satisfactorily proved and substantiated the truth of the prin- 

 ciples announced by Mr M'Leay, but has, moreover, discovered others 

 of nearly equal importance, the result of analytical examination, 

 supported and confirmed by the strict rules of inductive and analo- 

 gical reasoning. After many years of incessant study, and the 

 most searching investigation of the subject, with a reputation de- 

 servedly high, and which places him among the first zoologists of 

 the age, he now appears before the public as the expositor of the 

 true principles of zoological science, as the author, in fact, of a new 

 Regne Animal, founded and arranged on the real affinities of the 



