4-30 Notices respecting Neiv Books. 



or possess of the system actually existing in the creation. Of this 

 system, we cite the arrangement of tlie Animal Kingdom, and espe- 

 cially of the Annulosa, given in Mr. Macleay's Horce Entomologicee, 

 as being the first approximation to, with respect to the Animal King- 

 dcm g.^nerally; andMr.Vigors's arrangement of Birds, Mr. Macleay's 

 arrangement of the Coleoptera Chilopodomorpha of Java, c\nd Dr. Hors- 

 field s of the Lepidoptera Diurna of the same island and other parts of 

 India, together with some other essays, as other approximations to, in 

 difl'erent parts ofthe animal series. The Jussieuian systemof plants, so 

 far as the distribution of species into what are called natural orders is 

 concerned, and certain essays of Mr. R. Brown, especially ImProdromus 

 Florce Novce Hnllandice, are also examples of approximations to it, as 

 existing in the Vegetable Kingdom; though in many respects, we ap- 

 prehend, of a more remote nature than the former. Wliiie the Regne 

 Animaloi Cuvier, we conceive, presents a mixture of artificial systems 

 on various plans, with portions ofthe true natural system, detected by 

 the sagacity of its illustrious author, and by that of his predecessors 

 and his contemporaries. 



But Mr. Macleay has himself furnished us with an illustration of the 

 distinction between an artificial system and the natural system, which 

 on account of its clearness and effect we will now give in his own words. 



" Were the planets to be arranged in a table according to any one 

 of their properties, — as for instance, the period of rotation on their 

 several axes, — such a system would be artificial, and only useful in 

 that, having observed the length of a rotation, a reference to the table 

 would be a convenient mode of determining the name of the planet. 

 But no one would ever think of confounding this artificial table or 

 system with the system of the universe [meaning thereby our solar 

 system] ; although an error exactly similar is every day committed in 

 natural history, when a person who may by the mere exercise of his 

 memory have become acquainted with an artificial table, fancies that 

 he must therefore be a profound naturalist." — Hor. Ent. pref. p. xi. 



Now we think the above a very just illustration of the subject j the 

 supposed table of the planets arranged according to their respective 

 periods ofrotation, being an exact exemplification of an artificial .system 

 in natural history ; and a graphic representation of the actually ob- 

 served arrangement of them about the sun, or a verbal description or 

 other expression of it in a book, being the same thing, with respect to 

 them, that the natural system, or an approximation to it, is, with re- 

 spect to the species of animals or of plants ; with the exception, that, 

 in the case of the planets, the natural system actually exists (as a 

 system) in space, but that in the case of the species of animals and 

 plants, it is not exhibited in space; but is the result of induction from 

 particular instances, each particular instance itself consisting of a 

 group of animals or of plants previously ascertained, by observation 

 and that spontaneous induction which is almost coincident with it, to 

 be natural assemblages. 



This mode of considering the subject leads us to another point 

 which appears to be of some importance, and which will probably tend 

 to show the true relation ofthe mode of investigating nature introduced 



into 



