38 THE ENTOMOLOGIST. 



completely connect them as to render it altogether uncertain 

 to which ihey more truly belong." — Ray: Preface to ^ His- 

 toria Plantaruin.^ 



Ideas to the same effect were subsequently avowed by 

 Linnaeus, Lindley, and a host of others, and have never been 

 controverted ; neither is it possible to controvert such a 

 self-evident truth. Then, also, with regard to exceptions, 

 these do and must occur without interfering with the general 

 uiilitv of a scheme. Some have said that the exception 

 establishes the rule ; but without going to the full extent of 

 this apparent paradox, I entirely concur with its spirit, since 

 I know that an insect may be legless, wingless, antenna^less, 

 without interfering in any manner with the propriety, or even 

 the necessity, of arranging it according to the structure of 

 these organs, or of neglecting or undervaluing the teaching 

 of that structure or that economy which is most emphatically 

 pronounced and most prominently displayed. 



Too much stress can hardly be laid on the fact that every 

 character must be consulted in the course of sub-division, or, 

 what Cuvier calls, the "distribution"" of the Animal Kingdom, 

 not necessarily all at once, or all at every stage of the 

 process of " distribution," but every character will occasionally 

 crop up more prominently than the rest, and must then be 

 utilised. In the foregoing remarks, structure and the 

 arrangement of bones were thus utilised in xny Jimi division; 

 number of legs in my second; metamorphosis will be 

 employed in my third; combined with varied form and 

 character of the mouth and food and economy in the fourth. 

 It must not be inferred that no other differences than those 

 mentioned exist in either case, but that these are the most 

 salient, and appear most distinctive in those cases in which 

 they are employed. 



There can be no doubt that a "system of Nature" exists, 

 but that the key to this system is not placed in our hands. 

 The distinctive characters are Nature's, but the mode of 

 employing them is man's, and man is very apt to go 

 astray while attempting to discover and define the 

 principles on which she works. It has, however, been 

 shown by Cuvier that the animal kingdom is divided into 

 four provinces, and Latreille in his last great work, the 

 ' Causes d'Entomologie,' having shown that one of these 

 provinces, Exosteales, is again a tetrarchy, the same will be 

 adopted here without hesitation and without alteration. 

 (To be continued.) 



