496 Mr.BicuEno on Systems and Methods in Natural History. 
division Monocotyledones ; and where the characters are less defi- 
nite, the plants pointed at might be assembled under a simple 
asterisk. | 
One chief recommendation of the natural system over the ar- 
tificial, is the liberty which it leaves to the mind. The one shuts 
it in to the narrowest scope of observation, while the other suf- 
fers it to range in search of all the properties belonging to created 
beings; their functions, their structure, relations and resem- 
blances, affinities and analogies. It is speculative and general 
truth that the natural system enables us to pursue ; and this will 
never submit to be bound by any fetters which the art of man 
can invent. Books after all are but a rude mode of holding 
knowledge together; and language but an imperfect vehicle to 
convey with precision the just relations of things. At best it 
bears the image of the earthy, while things themselves bear the 
image of the heavenly. 
XXIV. An 
