190 STUDY OF NATURAL HISTORY 



be an artificial arrangement — because, by selecting 

 these characters alone, and passing over every 

 other as inferior, we bring animals together of 

 totally different organisations. A natural system, 

 on the other hand, aims at exhibiting that series 

 which appears most to accord with the order of 

 nature. It does not attempt to define groups so 

 rigidly as to render them absolute divisions; but, 

 by passing over solitary exceptions, rather seeks to 

 gain general results, and to develope that uniformity 

 of plan, upon which every object in nature was 

 originally created. There can be, of course, but, 

 one true natural system. But we may safely speak 

 of all such as we have last defined in the plural 

 number, because they all aim at the natural classi- 

 fication ; whereas the object of an artificial system 

 is merely to assist us in finding the names and 

 properties of species. As we shall have occasion, 

 hereafter, to treat of systems more at large, it is suf- 

 ficient, for our present purpose, merely to give the 

 student a general idea of their respective natures. 



(131.) With his materials before him, in the 

 shape of notes and specimens, the young naturalist 

 is now to choose whether he will adopt an artificial, 

 or aim at a natural, classification: that is to say, 

 whether he will learn the names of objects by rote, 

 as he would learn the words of a dictionary ; or 

 whether he will try to combine his objects in such 

 a way as to discover the principles upon which their 

 variations are regulated. By choosing the latter 

 plan, — to pursue the simile, — he will endeavour to 

 dispose the words of his dictionary in such order, 

 as that they may produce harmonious sentences, or 



