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argument, the basis of his various doctrines, at any 

 rate of those in which the critical subject of arrangement 

 is concerned ; I shall perhaps be pardoned, after having 

 been drawn, in the preceding chapters (however involun- 

 tarily), into the question of ' species/ as rigidly defined, 

 if I now offer a few passing remarks on the theory of 

 genera. 



There can be no doubt that amongst a large class of 

 ordinary observers a clear perception of the generic 

 system, in an abstract sense, does not by any means 

 prevail. What the nature of a genus really is, would 

 appear to have been very commonly overlooked, or per- 

 haps misunderstood, by people of this stamp; and the 

 consequence has been, that the wildest notions have 

 frequently arisen, even from men of sound specific 

 attainments, as to the claims (for annihilation or re- 

 tention, as ( genera ') of certain subsidiary zoological 

 assemblages. The terms ' genus ; and ' species ' have 

 been conjointly so long associated in our minds with the 

 selfsame things (whatsoever they may be), that they 

 have become almost part and parcel of the objects them- 

 selves; so that the student who does not sufficiently 

 reflect on their true signification, is apt to regard them 

 as of equal importance, or, rather, more often perhaps 

 than otherwise, to make the latter subservient (or 

 inferior) to the former ! This however is, in reality, the 

 very reverse of what should be the case, as a moment's 

 consideration will indeed at once convince us : for what 

 are genera, after all, but dilatations (as it were) along a 



