observe, that he is allowed by all to have established, on an indestructible basis, many of the most important generalizations which zoology now contains; and the principal defect which his critics have pointed out, has been, that he did not generalize still more widely and boldly. It appears, therefore, that he cannot but be placed among the great discoverers in the studies which he pursued; and this being the case, those who look with pleasure on the tendency of the thoughts of the greatest men to an Intelligence far higher than their own, must be gratified to find that he was an example of this tendency; and that the acknowledgement of a creative purpose, as well as a creative power, not only entered into his belief, but made an indispensable and prominent part of his philosophy.

Sect. 3.-Establishment and Application of the Principle of the Conditions of Existence of Animals.—Cuvier.

WE have now to describe more in detail the doctrine which Cuvier maintained in opposition to such opinions as we have been speaking of; and which, in his way of applying it, we look upon as a material advance in physiological knowledge, and therefore give to it a distinct place in our history. "Zoology has," he says," in the outset of his Règne Animal, “a principle of reasoning which is peculiar to it, and which it employs with advantage on many occasions: this is the principle of the Conditions of Existence, vulgarly the principle of Final Causes. As nothing can exist if it do not combine all the conditions which render its existence possible, the different parts of each being must be co-ordinated in such a manner as to render the total being possible, not only in itself, but in its relations to those which surround it; and the analysis of these conditions often leads to general laws, as clearly demonstrated as those which result from calculation or from experience."

This is the enunciation of his leading principle in general terms. To our ascribing it to him, some may object on the ground of its being self-evident in its nature,20 and having been very anciently applied. But to this we reply, that the principle must be considered as a real discovery in the hands of him who first shows how to make it an instrument of other discoveries. It is true, in other cases as well as in this, that some vague apprehension, of true general principles, such as à

19

Règne An.

p.

6.

20 Swainson, Study of Nat. Hist. p. 85.

priori considerations can supply, has long preceded the knowledge of them as real and verified laws. In such a way it was seen, before Newton, that the motions of the planets must result from attraction; and so, before Dufay and Franklin, it was held that electrical actions must result from a fluid. Cuvier's merit consisted, not in seeing that an animal cannot exist without combining all the conditions of its existence; but in perceiving that this truth may be taken as a guide in our researches concerning animals ;--that the mode of their existence may be collected from one part of their structure, and then applied to interpret or detect another part. He went on the supposition not only that animal forms have some plan, some purpose, but that they have an intelligible plan, a discoverable purpose. He proceeded in his investigations like the decipherer of a manuscript, who makes out his alphabet from one part of the context, and then applies it to read the rest. The proof that his principle was something very different from an identical proposition, is to be found in the fact, that it enabled him to understand and arrange the structures of animals with unprecedented clearness and completeness of order; and to restore the forms of the extinct animals which are found in the rocks of the earth, in a manner which has been universally assented to as irresistibly convincing. These results cannot flow from a trifling or barren principle; and they show us that if we are disposed to form such a judgment of Cuvier's doctrine, it must be because we do not fully apprehend its import.

To illustrate this, we need only quote the statement which he makes, and the uses to which he applies it. Thus in the Introduction to his great work on Fossil Remains he says, "Every organized being forms an entire system of its own, all the parts of which mutually correspond, and concur to produce a certain definite purpose by reciprocal reaction, or by combining to the same end. Hence none of these separate parts can change their forms without a corresponding change in the other parts of the same animal; and consequently each of these parts, taken separately, indicates all the other parts to which it has belonged. Thus, if the viscera of an animal are so organized as only to be fitted for the digestion of recent flesh, it is also requisite that the jaws should be so constructed as to fit them for devouring prey; the claws must be constructed for seizing it and tearing it to pieces; the teeth for cutting and dividing its flesh; the entire system of the limbs or organs of motion for pursuing and overtaking it; and the organs of sense for discovering it at a distance. Nature must also have endowed the brain of the animal with instincts sufficient for concealing itself, and for laying plans to

catch its necessary victims.' By such considerations he has been able to reconstruct the whole of many animals of which parts only were given;—a positive result, which shows both the reality and the value of the truth on which he wrought.

Another great example, equally showing the immense importance of this principle in Cuvier's hands, is the reform which, by means of it, he introduced into the classification of animals. Here again we may quote the view he himself has given22 of the character of his own improvements. In studying the physiology of the natural classes of vertebrate animals, he found, he says, "in the respective quantity of their respiration, the reason of the quantity of their motion, and consequently of the kind of locomotion. This, again, furnishes the reason for the forms of their skeletons and muscles; and the energy of their senses, and the force of their digestion, are in a necessary proportion to the same quantity. Thus a division which had till then been established, like that of vegetables, only upon observation, was found to rest upon causes appreciable, and applicable to other cases." Accordingly, he applied this view to invertebrates;-examined the modifications which take place in their organs of circulation, respiration, and sensation; and having calculated the necessary results of these modifications, he deduced from it a new division of those animals, in which they are arranged according to their true relations.

Such have been some of the results of the principle of the Conditions of Existence, as applied by its great assertor.

It is clear, indeed, that such a principle could acquire its practical value only in the hands of a person intimately acquainted with anatomical details, with the functions of the organs, and with their variety in different animals. It is only by means of such nutriment that the embryo truth could be developed into a vast tree of science. But it is not the less clear, that Cuvier's immense knowledge and great powers of thought led to their results, only by being employed under the guidance of this master-principle: and, therefore, we may justly consider it as the distinctive feature of his speculations, and follow it with a gratified eye, as the thread of gold which runs through, connects, and enriches his zoological researches:-gives them a deeper interest and a higher value than can belong to any view of the organical sciences, in which the very essence of organization is kept out of sight.

21 Theory of the Earth, p. 90.

22 Hist. Sc. Nat. i. 293.

The real philosopher, who knows that all the kinds of truth are intimately connected, and that all the best hopes and encouragements which are granted to our nature must be consistent with truth, will be satisfied and confirmed, rather than surprised and disturbed, thus to find the Natural Sciences leading him to the borders of a higher region. To him it will appear natural and reasonable, that after journeying so long among the beautiful and orderly laws by which the universe is governed, we find ourselves at last approaching to a Source of order and law, and intellectual beauty:-that, after venturing into the region of life and feeling and will, we are led to believe the Fountain of life and will not to be itself unintelligent and dead, but to be a living Mind, a Power which aims as well as acts. To us this doctrine appears like the natural cadence of the tones to which we have so long been listening; and without such a final strain our ears would have been left craving and unsatisfied. We have been lingering long amid the harmonies of law and symmetry, constancy and development; and these notes, though their music was sweet and deep, must too often have sounded to the ear of our moral nature, as vague and unmeaning melodies, floating in the air around us, but conveying no definite thought, moulded into no intelligible announcement. But one passage which we have again and again caught by snatches, though sometimes interrupted and lost, at last swells in our ears full, clear, and decided; and the religious "Hymn in honor of the Creator," to which Galen so gladly lent his voice, and in which the best physiologists of succeeding times have ever joined, is filled into a richer and deeper harmony by the greatest philosophers of these later days, and will roll on hereafter the "perpetual song" of the temple of science.