499 Mr. BicugwNo on Systems and Methods 
is destructive, as it appears to me, of his system as a means of 
general reasoning. 
In no department of natural history are the inconveniences 
arising out of this confusion of analysis and synthesis more felt 
than in Entomology. The multitude of species included in this 
kingdom of nature is so great, that it requires the most skilful 
arrangement to enable the student to determine them: yet it 
is unquestionably the worst furnished with assistance in this. 
way ;—a defect which may be attributed chiefly, I apprehend, to 
the attempt which both we and our continental neighbours have 
made to combine the natural with the artificial system. Wehave 
aimed at analysis and synthesis at the same time. A compre- 
hensive acquaintance with this infinitely varied tribe can alone 
enable us to synthesise with safety ; and a long period must 
elapse before we can hope to embrace within our synthesis the 
whole of the insect world. à 
In the large views taken by means of the natural system, our 
business will for ever be the labour of separating what we shall 
know from that which is unknown. The profoundest knowledge 
will at last be but a fragment. Some groups of nature are so 
closely related, that they have been observed from time imme- 
morial. ‘* Whatsoever parteth the hoof and is cloven-footed, 
and cheweth the cud," comprehends a group of animals so ob- 
viously connected, that they must have received a generic ap- 
pellation from the remotest period. As knowledge has increased, 
more and more families have been separated: still there is al- 
ways a remainder of unknown things. Take any natural system, 
and see if this is not the case.  Linnzeus in his * Fragments of 
a Natural Method" professes only to separate from the mass 
those groups which he saw clearly. Again, his definition of 
vegetables indicates the same truth: « Vegetabilia comprehen- 
dunt Familias septem, Fungos, Algas, Muscos, Filices, Gramina, 
Palmas :" and then, to include the remainder, he adds, **et 
Plantas ;” 
