PREJUDICES OF SYSTEMATISTS. 157 
recently promulgated, and which their discoverers 
designate as natural, have, as yet, been but imper- 
fectly explained ; that, at present, they are crude 
and ill-defined, and consequently, that they are too 
imperfectly developed and too partially verified, to 
merit general confidence. Yet to whom is this 
latter fault to be attributed, but to those who 
urge it? Ifthe advocates of arbitrary classification 
contend that it will be time enough to dismiss our 
present systems when these new theories have been 
extensively proved in every department of zoology, 
and yet refuse, themselves, to join in the Herculean 
task, and to try how far these new views can be 
verified in unarranged groups, they contribute to 
augment that evil of which they complain: and if 
they thus determine to evade this labour, we can 
scarcely hope that any thing effectual will be ac- 
complished in the present century. How much 
better would it be for science, if, instead of urging 
such querulous complaints, these advocates for what 
is old would overcome prejudice of opinion, and. 
resolve to try every theory that professes to develope 
general laws by the surest of all tests —their 
universality. At all events, even if we allow the 
full force of their objection, the only just inference 
to be drawn is, that our prejudices in favour of 
arbitrary systems should be shaken, if not overcome. 
He who considers that natural history is to be 
studied by rules different from those by which all 
other physical sciences are prosecuted, is s_ totally 
unfit to meddle with it. 
(96.) Prejudices of opinion, also, in regard to 
natural history, are to be combated by another 
