Thus, appeared the grand-prince of Suzdal or Vladimir, of Tver,, of Ryazan and of Moscow - all irreconcilable rivals with little or no feeling of blood-relationship. The more ambitious and powerful among them aspired not to succeed but to subdue the others and to take possession of their territory, and the armed.
The tracing out of this identity in diversity, whether regarded as evidence of blood-relationship or as a remarkable display of skill on the part of the Creator in varying the details whilst retaining the essential, became at this period a special pursuit, to which Goethe, the poet, who himself contributed importantly to it, gave the name " morphology."
It has been shown in the mammals that blood-relationship, in the strict and literal sense, holds good.
Many of the so-called genera, or groups of genera, are consequently not to be used either as witnesses of blood-relationship or of geographical distribution.