CLASSIFICATION BY SERIES. 329 



the formation of groups or of series, those principles 

 are applicable to all cases in which mankind are called 

 upon to bring the various parts of any extensive sub- 

 ject into mental coordination. They are as much to 

 the point when objects are to be classed for purposes 

 of art or business, as for those of science. The proper 

 arrangement, for example, of a code of laws, depends 

 upon the same scientific conditions as the classifica- 

 tions in natural history; nor could there be a better 

 preparatory discipline for that important function, 

 than the study of the principles of a natural arrange- 

 ment, not only in the abstract, but in their actual 

 application to the class of phenomena for which they 

 were first elaborated, and which are still the best 

 school for learning their use. Of this the great 

 authority on codification, Bentharn, was perfectly 

 aware: and his early Fragment on Government, the 

 admirable introduction to a series of writings une- 

 qualled in their peculiar department, contains clear 

 and just views (as far as they go) on the meaning of a 

 natural arrangement, such as could scarcely have 

 occurred to any one who lived anterior to the age of 

 Linnseus and Bernard de Jussieu. 



