NATURAL AND ARTIFICIAL SYSTEMS. 125 



are we to understand from this question and remark, but 

 that, in the estimation of our author, his own system, 

 although unquestionably nearest to nature than any other, 

 is, like all others, artificial ? According to this view, the 

 natural system can never, by any possibility, be discovered: 

 since, in the most perfect human exposition of the laws 

 of creation, a " remnant of unknown things" will always 

 remain, and the system will thus become artificial. Mr. 

 Bicheno, on the other hand, contends, that " to establish 

 differences is the end of the natural system;" obviously 

 meaning, as it appears to us, that the chief object which 

 the naturalist should keep in view, when prosecuting this 

 search after the natural system, should be to trace and 

 " establish those agreements" which, although unex- 

 plained, have, as his opponent truly observes, existed 

 since the creation. The same writer remarks, that " di- 

 vision and separation is the end of the artificial sys- 

 tem," or, in other words, is that object which the 

 framer of such a system should keep in view, in order 

 to facilitate the more ready discovery of the species. 

 Now, both these definitions are unquestionably true. 

 For, however objectionable the precise words may be 

 in which they have been expressed, it is clear that our 

 author understood that difference between an artificial 

 and a natural system, which we shall presently in- 

 vestigate. We pass over the confused and unintel- 

 ligible doctrines of other writers, one of whom main- 

 tains, " that in a natural genus, or system, there are 

 artificial combinations ;"* thus denying that there is, in 

 fact, any natural system, and maintaining the ridiculous 

 inconsistency that what is natural may be at the same 

 artificial! 



(178.) What, then, is the difference between an artifi- 

 cial and a natural system ? The first is, for the ready dis- 

 crimination of the species ; the latter, for the elucidation 

 of those resemblances which such species bear to others, 

 in all their varied and complex relations. The one stops, 



* Philosophy of Zoology, voL il P- Hi. 



