Q 
*m0 
SYSTEM OF NATURE. 
same market, this pirating an arrangement would be con¬ 
sidered ample ground for an action at law. Thus it ap~ 
pears we all tacitly acknowledge that arrangement, so far 
as yet carried, is the result of human wisdom, judgment 
and inventive faculty, and neither has, nor is supposed to 
have, any reference to the designs of an omnipotent Cre¬ 
ator. Those therefore who have looked on me with per¬ 
haps rather a jealous eye, as a competitor for reputation 
in the same field-—the just classification of natural ob¬ 
jects— have given themselves needless anxiety, from a 
mistaken idea of my views: our objects are not the same; 
our labours do not and cannot clash : their desire is by the 
application of human knowledge, and human skill and hu¬ 
man industry, to build up a system that shall be permanent; 
mine to discover one already built, — a system in which 
human knowledge, skill and industry have had no part,— a 
system in fine whose Builder and Founder is the Almighty. 
It has always appeared to me that the discovery of the 
natural system is the highest object of the naturalist: other 
branches of the science are collections of facts, the indi¬ 
vidual worth of which no one can doubt; but, like words, 
however fraught with meaning and sterling value, they 
acquire a meaning and value infinitely more extensive 
from the mode in which they may be arranged. I be¬ 
lieve some writers contend that no fixed system or plan 
prevails in Nature, but that the similarity of one object to 
another is merely fortuitous, and forms no portion of an 
uniform design. To convince such as these I consider 
quite impossible : I would only suggest to them the great 
improbability that a Creator who has with such unerring 
wisdom adapted means to destined ends, should have per¬ 
formed any part of the mighty work of creation without a 
