ARTIFICIAL SYSTEMS. 43 



fine their studies, have been precisely what might be 

 anticipated. Having little or no acquaintance with the 

 innumerable groups of animals lying beyond the con- 

 fines of those they study, they have not the knowledge 

 requisite for enlarged generalisation. Destitute, there- 

 fore, of a solid foundation upon which their theories 

 should be built, they lay a partial, and therefore an er- 

 roneous, one, founded only upon the objects immediately 

 before them. Each, therefore, selects what he conceives 

 to be the most important character, and makes it the 

 corner stone of his system. In Entomology, for instance, 

 one attaches a primary importance to the wings, and 

 makes them the foundation of his theory ; another ob- 

 jects to this, and chooses the legs ; a third, differing 

 from both, considers metamorphosis as the master key 

 to the natural arrangement, and founds his arrangement 

 thereon. No proofs, drawn from a general survey of all 

 other animals, is required, or even thought of, to sub- 

 stantiate any of these theories : they merely rest on the 

 individual opinion of their founders ; and they are adopted 

 or rejected according to the estimation in which their 

 judgment may be held. Hence has originated the in- 

 numerable systems of Entomology which perplex the at- 

 tention of the student, heap obstacles in the way of his 

 advancement, and burthen our Introductions with com- 

 plicated theories, and useless references. The judgment, 

 or the imagination, of their authors being unshackled by 

 any restraints, almost every one, ambitious of improving 

 on his predecessor, makes some new change of his own. 

 New denominations are given to old groups, and new 

 foundations are laid for orders and classes. Every year 

 brings forth a new theory, not of all animals, but of in- 

 sects only, until entoinological classification, having no 

 foundation in inductive philosophy, is now become a 

 quicksand, shifting with every tide that flows. 



(38.) Independent, however, of the foregoing con- 

 siderations, we should reject the systems just spoken of 

 upon other equally strong grounds. The most obvious 

 characteristic of the animal world is its interminable 



