138 
BRITISH BEES. 
direct than those which unite them within their own 
circle. 
Many novel views and interesting combinations have 
been thus elicited, showing that very strong affinities lie 
in very divergent directions, but no system has been 
hitherto devised which overrules the conflicting difficul¬ 
ties that attend these arrangements. Whatever number 
may have been adopted to bring nature within this 
circular system, it has always been found that some, or 
several members, both in the circles themselves, or in 
their series, is as yet deficient, and awaits either dis¬ 
covery or creation. 
The pursuit of such views stimulates profound inves¬ 
tigation, and may lead to valuable discoveries that will 
eventually give a loftier and more philosophical cha¬ 
racter to the study of natural history than it has hitherto 
possessed, and make it an attraction to the highest class 
of mental powers. The key to the universe hangs at 
the girdle of the veiled goddess; and happy the student 
who shall achieve possession of it, and unlock the mys¬ 
teries to the reverential gaze of mankind. 
The relation of analogy is different in kind, although 
the general affinities which bind a class together are 
necessarily affinities in the widest construction of the 
term ; but the class being resolved into its elements, 
those affinities,, thus dissevered, no longer retain the 
uniting links whereby the mass coheres. They, more 
correctly, stream from their origin in parallelisms rather 
than in a continuous and uninterrupted current; and 
these parallelisms present resemblances often of a merely 
superficial character. As strong an instance as I can 
adduce is possibly the analogical parallelism of the Pen - 
tamera and the Heteromera in the Coleoptera , which 
