xlii 



THE QUINARY SYSTEM. 



have too many, developing more feeding organs if they have too 

 few, and the like. The disciples of Mr. MacLeay, I am well con- 

 vinced, have no such notions ; but why then do they use the very 

 words of those who have, and which are not, without twisting, 

 capable of any other meaning ? To say this is metaphorical, and 

 refers not to the progress of the animals, but to the progress of 

 the mind of the observer, is at once confessing the fanciful basis of 

 the whole system. Considered either in this light, or in that of the 

 Creator forming animals at first, more or less typical, or degraded, 

 it seems to me as unphilosophical as it is derogatory to the Deity. 

 In the latter view, the language employed must, I think, strike 

 every body who reads it, as highly objectionable and improper; 

 whether it be considered literal or metaphorical ; whether, for 

 example, we take Nature as an imaginary personage, or as a 

 synonime or a personification of the Creator, the following 

 passage will appear nearly the same. " In passing," it is said, 

 " from one leading form to another, nature seems to advance 

 with greater caution and a slower pace than usual ; she appears 

 to fluctuate between a manifest reluctance to relinquish the 

 tracts which she has left behind, and an anxiety to anticipate 

 those upon which she is about to enter; alternately retracing 

 or advancing her steps, and nearing, with somewhat of an appa- 

 rently wayward indecision, the different points of each. But 

 when once she has cleared the narrow windings of these inter- 

 vening passages, and has ascended the typical heights, she seems 

 to have gained, as it were, a table land, where she can expatiate 

 with a wider range, and indulge herself with more excursive 

 freedom."* Surely I may in all fairness ask, who is this Nature ? 

 If the Creator is not meant, who is it that sometimes " appears to " 

 fluctuate with 66 wayward indecision," and sometimes seems to 

 indulge a "more excursive freedom?" Not He, I should hope, 

 " with whom is no variableness nor the least shadow of turning."f 

 The indefiniteness of this term, Nature, was perceived even by 

 the heathen moralist, Seneca : — " A man says, ' Nature gives me 

 these things.' Do you understand, that when you say this you 

 are only changing the name of God ? For what else is Nature 



* Zool. Journ. ii. 66. 



t James i. 17. 



