4 
SYSTEM OF NATURE. 
criticism : it is not the random arrangement of a careless 
author compiling by the page, neither is it the crude idea 
of a juvenile dabbler in natural history; it is the result 
of the most laborious dissection and analysis; it is the 
triumphant consummation of an almost superhuman in¬ 
tellect ; and yet it contains abundant evidence of imper¬ 
fection — of the imperfection of a system restricted by the 
formality of a line. 
Infinitely varied though they be, the naturalist seldom 
finds in created beings those sudden transitions from one 
structure to another which this the most approved linear 
system is constantly exhibiting; the reason is obvious: 
in carefully following out similarities, in seeking with a 
free and unfettered mind to trace in each animal all its 
points of resemblance to others, he will constantly find 
some conspicuous form which shall possess several marked 
characters ; one of such characters shall be possessed by 
several other animals, a different character by each differ¬ 
ent animal: again, he will often find that an obviously 
natural group contains widely different forms, some of 
such forms bearing a greater superficial resemblance to 
certain other groups than to the usual form of that group 
to which, from a comparison of their anatomical structure, 
they obviously belong : these forms, which have been 
called abnormal, differ also exceedingly from each other, 
yet still generally exhibit, in a nearly equal degree, though 
widely different mode, similarities to the usual or what is 
properly termed normal form of the group. Now no sys¬ 
tem hitherto invented will at all cope with this : in a linear 
series any group that shall contain representatives of even 
three other groups cannot possibly be so arranged as that 
each representative shall approach the form represented; 
