196 STUDY OF NATURAL HISTORY. 



on the same principle, be likewise separated. It 

 might be easy, indeed, in an artificial system, to 

 place such apterous insects in a division by them- 

 selves ; but what mistaken ideas would such a plan 

 give rise to! To render such insects intelligible, 

 they must have a name ; and we should either be 

 compelled to introduce the same genus and the 

 same species into two different divisions — perhaps 

 volumes, — or we must call the male by one name, and 

 the female by another ! Besides this, as artificial 

 systems are framed upon no general principles of 

 classification, no stability whatever is given to the 

 very elements of the science ; or rather, there is an 

 absence of all elements. As there can be neither 

 science nor philosophy in an alphabetical arrange- 

 ment of words, so there can be none in a system of 

 animals framed only with a view of making them 

 easily found out. Simplicity, also, which seems at 

 first so captivating a feature in such methods, is 

 more superficial than real. Do what we can towards 

 defining groups so strictly that no exceptions shall 

 occur, and no deviations be found at variance with 

 our generic characters, still we shall soon discover 

 how impossible it is to circumscribe nature, even in 

 her lowest groups : we shall constantly be meeting 

 some species which depart from our arbitrary 

 standard of character, and which oblige us to make 

 new divisions for their reception: these divisions 

 will finally be so multiplied, and so intricate, that 

 our artificial method will become more complicated 

 than the most elaborate natural system: its simplicity, 

 in fact, will be destroyed; and we shall lose as 



