342 THEORY OF THE SYSTEM. . 229. 



many species, which on that account cannot be well de- 

 termined, and which, besides other bad consequences, only 

 serve to render the nomenclature difficult and inapplicable. 

 A third rule recommends us not to enter newly determin- 

 ed species into the system with too much precipitation, but 

 to follow the example of other cautious naturalists, and to 

 expect some more extended knowledge from future obser- 

 vations, in order not to hazard precipitous determinations. 

 Indeed it seems better that something, though it were 

 known for some time, should be wanting in the system ; 

 than to allow an ill determined species to injure the con- 

 nexion of the whole. For the rest, mere hypotheses or the 

 results of other sciences, should never be relied on in these 

 determinations, because it is below the dignity of a science, 

 which admits of the application of mathematics, to build 

 its frame upon hypotheses. Natural History too posses- 

 ses so many means of assistance peculiar to itself, that if 

 well applied (which has not always been the case in 

 Mineralogy) it may rest solely upon its own determi- 

 nations. 



A system thus produced is what has been termed the 

 Natural System, because it expresses the different degrees 

 of natural-historical resemblance with which nature itself 

 has stamped its productions. This, however, is the only 

 part nature takes in a natural system, and it is therefore 

 not the System of Nature. This idea is merely an imagi- 

 nary one, and no object corresponds to it. Nature pro- 

 duces only different bodies, but no abstract ideas ; and the 

 system of nature, mentioned by several natural philoso- 

 phers, are only words without ideas, or ideas without ob- 

 ject. Opposed to the natural system, there are also Arti- 

 ficial Systems. The natural system produces its general 

 ideas by the process of aggregation, while in the artificial 

 ones, the assemblages depend upon general ideas, in as 

 much as they are obtained by the process of division. 



The expressions of natural and artiftcutl systems, though 

 generally received, do not convey the exact idea of what 

 they have to express. They have on that account been the 



