44 NATURAL ARRANGEMENT OF INSECTS. 



variation. A system, therefore, which is chiefly or ex- 

 clusively built upon any one set of organs, must neces- 

 sarily be artificial ; since it presumes that to be fixed and 

 determinate, which is not so in nature.* Who is to de- 

 termine, a priori, whether the natural arrangement of 

 insects rests on their metamorphosis, the presence or 

 absence of wings, or the construction of their mouth ? 

 Each and all may be pronounced good and natural cha- 

 racters ; but what reason is there that we should prefer 

 one before the other, when we are altogether ignorant 

 how these characters can be traced in other animals ? 

 The distinctions of the Annulom rest not upon one, but 

 upon many peculiarities of structure. And if we have 

 no analogous instances or co-relations to guide our choice, 

 that choice, to say the least, is liable to error. All, 

 therefore, that can be said in defence of artificial sys- 

 tems is this, that they are useful helps for the deter- 

 mination of species, and served the purposes of arrange- 

 ment so long as no better methods of exhibiting nature 

 existed. They have now lasted their time; and after 

 doing ample justice to their authors for contributing to 

 call forth better views, their systems, in modern classifi- 

 cations, may be fairly dismissed. 



(39-) We now turn to natural systems, or those 

 which have been framed on the admission that the 

 different tribes of insects possess direct relations of 

 analogy among themselves. There are more than one 

 of these, all originating, however, in the philosophic re- 

 searches of the author of the Horce Entomologies. We 

 are obliged, however, to dissent from all these, not from 

 objecting to the abstract principles upon which they are 

 founded, but because they have not been extended suf- 

 ficiently wide to carry a conviction of their accuracy: 

 they stop short at that point, which, if carried, would 



* Of this description are those called the Metamorphotic, the Cibarian, 

 and the Alary systems. The theory of the Eclectic system, which pro- 

 fesses to be founded on the entire characters of insects in all their stages, is 

 sound, did it not contemplate insects as unrelated to other animals. Those 

 who wish to understand these and numerous other systems, may consult the 

 fourth volume of Kirby and Spence, or Mr. Westwood's Introduction to 

 the Modern Classification of Insects. 



