334 ON THE CLASSES OF THE 



sort does exist, neither believer nor atheist will deny; and 

 Lamarck justly calls the existence of order in the compo- 

 sition of organized beings " le plus important fait de tons 

 ceux quon ait remarques dans V observation des corps vivans." 

 Sure enough it is, that we cannot find within all the sphere 

 of human knowledge so beautiful an evidence of the truths 

 of natural religion. How vexing then for naturalists to 

 find their researches into the nature of this progression so 

 constantly foiled ! It must be a simple series, say some 

 philosophers, because man is evidently the lord of the 

 creation, and the form to which every other must be re- 

 ferred. But this cannot be a logical conclusion, suppos- 

 ing even the premises to be correct ; which however may 

 be disputed, with the bare exception of that indubitable 

 superiority which man holds over all terrestrial organ- 

 ized beings. 



It is true that the possibility has been acknowledged, of 

 -establishing in the distribution of animals a sort of series 

 which may appear to recede gradually from man, who is 

 thus assumed to be a primitive type to which all other be- 

 ings are referable. It has been even asserted, that by this 

 process we may be enabled to form a graduated scale of 

 organization, which will be that simple progression the 

 existence of which has so often been assumed by meta- 

 physicians, and taken for granted by naturalists. But sup- 

 posing the human form to be the type to which all others 

 are to be compared, it is clear that, in endeavouring to esta- 

 blish the simple series, we must either consider each or- 

 ganized being in the whole of its parts, or in only one of 

 them. If we adopt the latter plan, there will be as 

 many different series formed, as there are regulating or- 

 gans ; since every person knows that no two organs un- 



