24 
SYSTEM OF NATURE. 
the present day of rigid enquiry nothing is taken for 
granted; and the anatomist who proves my view of the 
seal and walrus to be unsound, must place one with the 
Ferae and the other with the Belluae, and each at the point 
where these groups approach the Cete, — an arrangement 
peculiarly corroborative of the entirety and unity of the 
system I am attempting to explain. 
Far from insisting on this arrangement of the marine 
placentals, or on any of the approaches now proposed as 
natural, I rather offer them for consideration: supposing 
them fallacious, — still fallacies in such minor points 
cannot shake the fabric. No one thinks of denying the 
beauty and unity of design in a building because a stone 
has here and there fallen from its place. The fallen stones 
are replaced by others, and the building is more stable 
than before. If my suggestion of excluding Galeopithecus 
from the Primates, prove unsound, then it may enter that 
group and form an abnormal division. Again, if Bradypus 
will not lead to the Belluae, it may probably, in accordance 
with the views of Cuvier and others, approach the Bruta. 
Myrmecophaga didactyla I have already said approaches 
the Primates, and the great ant-eater treads on the side of 
its foot exactly like the sloth, although perhaps for a dif¬ 
ferent purpose, — to preserve its huge claws from wearing 
at the points, which would in a great measure prevent 
their performing the duty for which they were designed, 
that of scratching the ant-hills. 
Again, authors of high and deserved reputation have 
considered one group of monkeys infinitely superior to 
the rest. This comprises the genera Macacus, Papio and 
Simia, each considerably subdivided, and now forming 
small groups to which the title of families has been ap- 
