LETTER XLVII. 
SYSTEM OF INSECTS. 
HAVING considered insects as to their History, Ana- 
tomy and Physiology, we mast next enter a new and 
ample field, in which, like most of our predecessors, we 
shall often be perplexed and bewildered by the infinite 
variety of devious paths which traverse it, and by the 
mazy labyrinths in which the more we wander the less 
ground we seem to gain. — You will easily perceive I am 
speaking of the System of Insects. System is a subject 
which has engaged the attention of Naturalists from the 
time of Aristotle to the present day ; and even now that 
it has been so much and so ably discussed, they are far 
from being agreed concerning it. In our own country 
a clue has, however, of late been furnished, which upon 
the whole seems better calculated to enable us to thread 
the intricate labyrinth of nature, than any thing pre- 
viously excogitated. 
There are two words relating to this subject concern- 
ing which Naturalists seem not to have very precise ideas 
— Method and System. They have often been confounded 
and used indifferently to signify the same thing. Thus 
we hear of a Natural Method and a Natural System. 
Linne seems to have regarded \he former of these terms 
as representing the actual disposition of objects in na- 
