191? STUDY OF NATURAL HISTORY. 



pable, should be suffered to interfere or stand in 

 the way of this primary object. We would almost say, 

 that for amateurs, or for those who merely seek to 

 know scientific names, a thoroughly good artificial 

 system is the best for use. To judge from present 

 appearances, natural history, as a science, is fast 

 approaching to that state when its cultivation will 

 be confined to the man of leisure and of learning ; to 

 those who are installed in the precincts of a public 

 museum ; or who are possessed of a library and 

 collections which would cost a fortune to purchase, 

 or a lifetime to acquire. That the science should 

 be daily becoming more difficult, is not to be won- 

 dered at, or to be regretted, because an accession of 

 new objects calls for greater labour of investigation; 

 and no one can lament the extension of knowledge, 

 however he may be thereby prevented from acquiring 

 it himself. If there is any ground, therefore, upon 

 which we can advocate the expediency of a good 

 artificial system, even in these days, it is that of 

 enticing over to the admiration of nature, those 

 persons who, in the present state of the science, are 

 frightened at its difficulties, or turn away in disgust 

 at the dry uninviting manner in which nature has 

 been enshrouded with scientific technicalities. Such 

 persons, it is true, would not themselves, by adhering 

 to an artificial system, do any thing to develope the 

 philosophy of the science, but they might enrich its 

 records with innumerable facts, which might be 

 stored for future use ; and even they themselves 

 might in time be converts to a more just mode of 

 pursuing the study. Perhaps the best artificial 

 systems of modern times, are those proposed bv 



