324 ON THE CLASSES OF THE 



structed of terrestrial beings. So clearly does this dis- 

 position appear in Vertebrated animals) that if Ornitho- 

 rhynchus be in reality allied to aquatic birds, scarcely more 

 than a dozen animals will be necessary to form the true 

 circle of Vertebrata; and all the rest appear to be thrown 

 off from these, in a manner of which I can give no better 

 idea, than by comparing it to the radiation of a star com- 

 posed of five very eccentric ellipses touching one another. 



Such are the principal observations which I have to 

 make on the foregoing table of affinities, which, although a 

 most feeble and imperfect sketch of the truth, will, I 

 trust, be admitted to possess a degree of order and unity 

 hitherto conceived unattainable in the arrangement of 

 animals. This much I venture to say, without the least 

 fear of being charged with vanity, since it must be evi- 

 dent that an arrangement like the preceding, which is 

 nothing else than a simple table of natural affinities, 

 however it may impress us with the idea of Almighty 

 wisdom, can derive no aid whatsoever from human in- 

 genuity. Every discovery of an affinity indeed is, in part, 

 a discovery of natural arrangement ; but even in this 

 respect I have done little more than combined in one 

 view the discoveries of others. As for the combination 

 of these affinities, the harmony it may display is the work 

 of God, not of man ; and herein it differs from all other 

 systems hitherto proposed, that in admiring their several 

 merits we celebrate the just triumph of one of our own 

 species in simplifying the means of acquiring knowledge ; 

 but in admiring the order of the preceding table, so far as 

 it may be correct, we adore our Creator in one of his 

 stupendous works. 



If it should excite surprise that this arrangement of ani- 



