CLASSIFICATION 223 



to have been but little modified, and thej form a single 

 genus. But this genus, though much isolated, will still 

 occupy its proper intermediate position. The representa- 

 tion of the groups, as here given in the diagram on a flat 

 surface, is much too simple. The branches ought to 

 have diverged in all directions. If the names of the 

 groups had been simply written down in a linear series, 

 the representation would have been still less natural; and 

 it is notoriously not possible to represent in a series, on 

 a flat surface, the aflSnitics which we discover in nature 

 among the beings of the same group. Thus, the natural 

 system is genealogical in its arrangement, like a pedigree: 

 but the amount of modification which the different groups 

 have undergone has to be expressed by ranking them 

 under different so-called genera, sub-families, families, 

 sections, orders, and classes. 



It may be worth while to illustrate this view of 

 classification, by taking the case of languages. If we 

 possessed a perfect pedigree ot mankind, a genealogical 

 arrangement of the races of man would afford the best 

 classification of the various languages now spoken 

 throughout the world; and if all extinct languages, 

 and all intermediate and slowly changing dialects, were 

 to be included, such an arrangement would be the only 

 possible one. Yet it might be that some ancient lan- 

 guages had altered very little and had given rise to few 

 ]iew languages, while others had altered much, owing to 

 the spreading, isolation, and state of civilization of the 

 .-t.'veral codescended races, and had tlius given rise to 

 many new dialects and languages. The various degrees 

 of difference between the languages of the same stock 

 would have to be expressed by groups subordinate to 



