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MACLEAY SYSTEM 09 



beautiful, though as yet obscure relation betw een the two 

 grand forms of being, and consequently a unity in the 

 laws which brought them both into existence. So com- 

 plete does this analogy appear even in the present imper- 

 fect state of science, that I fully expect in a few years to 

 see the animal and vegetable kingdoms duly ranked up 

 against each other in a system of parallels, which will 

 admit of our assigning to each species in the former the 

 particular shrub or tree corresponding to it in the latter, 

 ail marked by unmistakable analogies of the most inte- 

 resting kind. 



It is as yet but a few years since a system of subordinate 

 analogies not less remarkable began to be speculated upon 

 as within the range of the animal kingdom. Probably it 

 also exists in the vegetable kingdom ; but to this point nc 

 direct attention has been given ; so we are left to infer that 

 such is the case from theoretical considerations only. We 

 are indebted for what we know of these beautiful analogies 

 to three naturalists — Macleay, Vigors, and Swainson, 

 whose labors tempt us to dismiss in a great measure the 

 artificial classifications hitherto used, and make an entire- 

 ly new conspectus of the animal kingdom, not to speak of 

 the corresponding reform which will be required in our 

 systems of botany also. 



The Macleay system, as it may be called in honor of its 

 principal author, announces that, whether we take the 

 whole animal kingdom, or any definite division of it, we 

 shall find that we are examining a group of beings which 

 is capable of being arranged along a series of close affini- 

 ties, in a circular form — that is to say, starting from any 

 one portion of the group, when it is properly arranged, we 

 can proceed from one to another by minute gradations, till 

 at length having run through the whole, we return to the 

 point whence we set out. All natural groups of animals 

 are, therefore, in the language of Mr. Macleay, circular ; 

 and the possibility cf throwing any supposed group into 

 a circular arrangement is held as a decisive test of its be 

 ing a real natural one. It is of course to be understood 

 that each circle is composed of a set of inferior circles ; 

 for example, a set of tribe circles composes an order , a 

 set of order circles, again, forms a class ; and so on. Of 

 each group, the component circles are invariably five in 

 number ; thus in the animal kingdom, there are five sub- 



