LETTER XLVII. 



SYSTEM OF INSECTS. 



HAVING considered insects as to their History, Ana- 

 tomy and Physiology, we must next enter a new and 

 ample field, in which, like most of our predecessors, we 

 shall often be perplexed and bewildered by the infinite 

 variety of devious paths which traverse it, and by the 

 mazy labyrinths in which the more we wander the less 

 ground we seem to gain. You will easily perceive I am 

 speaking of the System of Insects. System is a subject 

 which has engaged the attention of Naturalists from the 

 time of Aristotle to the present day ; and even now that 

 it has been so much and so ably discussed, they are far 

 from being agreed concerning it. In our own country 

 a clue has, however, of late been furnished, which upon 

 the whole seems better calculated to enable us to thread 

 the intricate labyrinth of nature, than any thing pre- 

 viously excogitated. 



There are two words relating to this subject concern- 

 ing which Naturalists seem not to have very precise ideas 

 Method and System. They have often been confounded 

 and used indifferently to signify the same thing. Thus 

 we hear of a Natural Method and a Natural System. 

 Linne seems to have regarded the former of these terms 

 as representing the actual disposition of objects in na- 



