CLASSIFICATION. 385 



regarded by some persons as its inventors. The Ramean 

 Tree is a name frequently employed instead of the Por- 

 phyrian Tree, or the *A>a, that is, the Ladder of Por- 

 phyry, as it was sometimes called by the Greek logicians. 

 Although I have looked through several commentaries 

 upon the Dialectics of Eamus, I do not find that very 

 much is said upon the subject. In the Questions of 

 Frederick Beurhusius r , the method of dichotomy is 

 described as 'ilia naturalis et antiquissimorum philoso- 

 phorum prsestantissima Dichotomia,' but in none of the 

 works do I find the Tree itself given. 



Among modern logicians Jeremy Bentham possesses 

 the great merit of having drawn attention to the logical 

 importance of bifurcate division. His remarks on the 

 subject are contained in that extraordinary collection of 

 digressive, and often almost incomprehensible papers, 

 called Chrestomathia 8 , two of the formidable title-pages 

 of which are given below. The fifth appendix in this 

 work, forming the larger and most important part of the 

 book, consists of an Essay on Nomenclature and Classifi- 

 cation*. Although written in his later and worse style, 

 this essay is well worth reading, and full of forcible 

 remarks. It may be regarded, I believe, as the first of 



r In Petri Kami, Eegii Professoris Clariss. Dialectics Libros duos 

 Lutetise Anno LXXII, postremo sine Prselectionibus seditos, explica- 

 tionum Quaestiones : quse Psedagogiae Logicse de Docenda Discendaque 

 Dialectica. Auctore Frederico Beurhusio. Londoni, 1581, p. 120. 



8 'Chrestomathia : being a Collection of Papers, explanatory of the Design 

 of an Institution proposed to be set on foot, under the name of the 

 Chrestomathic Day School, or Chrestomathic School, for the extension of 

 the New System of Instruction/ &c. By Jeremy Bentham, Esq., London, 

 1816. 



* 'An Essay on Nomenclature and Classification: including a Critical 

 Examination of the Encyclopedical Table of Lord Bacon, as improved by 

 D'Alembert : and the first lines of a new one grounded on the application 

 of the Logical Principle of Exhaustively Bifurcate Analysis.' London, 

 1817. 



VOL. II. C C 



