166 



of their allies, to be enumerated, and with equal plausi- 

 bility, under two consecutive groups ; they immediately 

 inferred that the groups themselves could not be upheld 

 on account of these connective links : and so it was re- 

 solved (through a new and artificial scheme) to ignore 

 them ; and to fall back upon the creed, that species alone 

 (and not genera) are to be recognized in the organic 

 world. This was but the device, however, at the outset, 

 of a single mind ; and the perverts to it have been but 

 few. It is in direct opposition to the first principles of 

 nomenclature, and sets at defiance a great natural truth. 

 But what, it may be inquired, is this great primary 

 truth which the monomial system tends to violate ? I 

 repeat what I have already stated, that it is the existence 

 of natural assemblages which that scheme would, if it 

 were practicable, discountenance. Order and symmetry, 

 however (which involve classification, or arrangement), 

 are the law of Nature, and it is not possible to set them 

 aside. It matters not if harsh lines of demarcation are 

 undiscernible between the several consecutive groups, 

 the groups themselves must still remain (however equivo- 

 cal it may be where they exactly commence or termi- 

 nate), and cannot be wiped out. To suppose a priori 

 that the allied divisions of the animate creation are per- 

 fectly disconnected inter se } is in fact to break the chain 

 on which the unity of the organic world depends ; whilst 

 to assume that groups cease to be groups when they can 

 be discovered to merge into each other, would no less 

 destroy the harmony of that admirable method, or 



