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INTRODUCTION. 21 
Zoology, &c., and then arranging these singly; or by endeavoring to 
join the separate paragraphs together, according to their obvious con- 
nection. He will probably find a combination of these two methods 
the most advantageous; and by a careful examination of each single 
paragraph in its relations to the whole, he may at last succeed in pro- 
ducing a series of connected treatises, methodically arranged according 
to their respective subjects, and regularly divided into chapters very 
nearly or even exactly upon the plan of the original author. Now the 
alphabetical arrangement would bear a close parallel with the Linnean 
system of Botanical classification; whilst the latter distribution,—the 
one evidently most calculated to convey to the learner a connected 
rather than a desultory knowledge of the several objects of his pursuit 
may not unaptly represent the Natural system. 
VALUE OF A NATURAL SYSTEM. 
22. It is by seeking for the latter only, that any of those general 
principles can ever be attained, which give their chief value to the facts 
of science, and which lead us higher and higher in the contemplation of 
that almighty Power and boundless Wisdom by which the Universe was 
framed ; for the Natural system would be but a table of contents of the 
yegetable Kingdom, arranged on the plan of its divine Author. In or- 
der to attain it, the Botanist requires to become acquainted, not only 
with all the tribes of vegetables at present existing on the surface of the 
globe, but with the forms and characters of those which have once ex- 
isted, since—it cannot be doubted—all these constituted parts of the one 
general scheme, without the knowledge of which it would be impossible 
to reconstruct it. Now it is well known to the Botanist, that a very 
large number of the species of plants with which he is somewhat ac- 
quainted, have been so imperfectly examined and described, that their 
true place in the system cannot be determined; and there is good rea- 
son to believe that there are many more of which he is totally ignorant. 
Here therefore are abundant causes for the imperfection of any natural 
system which can be at present framed; and should these ever be re- 
moved by long continued labor and research, there will yet remain the 
other causes resulting from the impossibility of becoming fully acquaint-’ 
ed with the characters of the races which have existed in former periods 
of the earth’s history, and which have been swept completely from its 
face. Of these, some remains are occasionally discovered, sufficiently 
perfect to excite the liveliest interest and curiosity, by showing that races 
once flourished which fill up many of the wide gaps existing between 
' those with whose characters we are now familiar, and which if we knew 
more of them, would explain many things that are at present most per- 
plexing. ~ ‘ baa 
