ANIMAL KINGDOM. 329 



M. Cuvier, that the world has been commonly accustomed 

 to institute between the calculations of the theoretical and 

 the observations of the practical Astronomer. I speak 

 not now of Lamarck as a mere genus-maker, which with 

 as little trouble as science we can each of us be; nor do 

 I allude to what he lias done in Conchology, for it is here 

 perhaps that his arrangement is most artificial; but I 

 would ask those who may have studied his works, whether 

 the reputation of any man for clear arrangement on prin- 

 ciples of affinity stands so deservedly high as his? Nay, 

 if we compare what he has effected generally for Natural 

 History with the improvements of others, there is little 

 reason to believe that his claims to our gratitude will be 

 found inferior to those of any of his contemporaries. 



Thus much I have considered it to be my duty to say 

 of a man whose scientific labours are now closed in blind- 

 ness; because his merits are in this country too little 

 known; because his discoveries, though less brilliant, have 

 had little less effect than those of Cuvier in producing the 

 present triumphant state of Natural History ; and lastly, 

 because he has done more than any other man that ever 

 existed, towards the natural arrangement of the Un verte- 

 bra ted animals. 



I shall now conclude this chapter with a review of 

 the general distribution of animals, and prove that M. La- 

 marck, by the first method of reasoning explained in a 

 preceding page, obtained an indistinct view of that ar- 

 rangement which I have attempted to develope by the se- 

 cond. In the supplement to the first volume of his cele- 

 brated work, which deserves to be studied by every 

 naturalist who can divest it of his peculiar theory of or- 

 ganization, he acknowledges that the idea of a simple series 



