xii CLASSIFICATION 167 



orders, etc., are merely more or less clumsy attempts to express 

 various shades of differences among creatures connected by 

 infinite gradations, and in this sense destroys the importance 

 attached to them by our predecessors. On the other hand, 

 it immensely increases the interest contained in the word 

 " relationship," as it implies that the word is used in a real 

 and not, as formerly, in a metaphorical sense. There is a kind 

 of classification, such as we might apply to inanimate sub- 

 stances or manufactured articles. We may say, for instance, 

 that a tumbler, a wine-glass, and a tea-cup are more closely 

 related to each other than either one is to a chair or a 

 table, and that they might be formed into one group, and 

 the last-named objects be placed in a second. This kind of 

 classification is certainly useful in its way for methodical 

 arrangement and descriptive purposes. It is the kind of 

 arrangement which Linnaeus and his contemporaries applied 

 to animals. It is, however, a very different classification from 

 that which supposes that the members of a group having 

 common essential characters are descended from a common 

 ancestor, and have gradually, by whatever cause or means, 

 become differentiated from other groups. On this view a 

 true classification, if it could be obtained, would be a 

 revelation of the whole secret of the evolution of animal 

 life, and it is no wonder that many are willing to devote 

 so large a share of their energies in an endeavour to attain it. 

 The right application of the principles of nomenclature, 

 first clearly established by Linnaeus, to the groups we form 

 is, again, by no means to be despised, as laxity and care- 

 lessness in this respect are becoming more and more the 

 greatest hindrances to the study of Zoology. The intro- 

 duction of any new term, especially a generic name, and 

 indeed the use of an old one by any person whose authority 

 carries weight, has an appreciable effect upon the progress of 

 science, and should never be made without a full sense of the 

 responsibility incurred. All beginners are puzzled and often 

 repelled by the confused state of zoological nomenclature to 

 an extent to which those who have advanced so far as only 

 to care for the things, and to whom the actual names by 

 which they are called are comparatively indifferent, have little 



