226 OPINIONS ON MR. NEWMAN's SPHINX VESPIFORMlS. 



term to three groups of very different degrees of importance. 

 Let me observe also, in this place, how completely the chica- 

 nery, the mystification of natural history, is removed by 

 Mr. Nevi'man's plan. Class, Stirps, (Subclass, N.^ Order, 

 Family, Genus, Species, are all the divisions which will 

 now be required ; and such terms as Lepidojitera, Tineina, 

 (Tinea, N.J Tortices, Halias, Fagatia, all old acquaintances, 

 are alone to be applied as names to such divisions. I would 

 entreat your readers to compare this series of names with the 

 divisions and subdivisions proposed even by that prince of 

 British entomologists, Mr. Kirby, in the Introduction to 

 Entomology, a mass of names which, if carried through the 

 system, no human life would be long enough to acquire — no 

 human memory powerful enough to retain.*^ 



It is with a feeling of proud satisfaction that I look back 

 on the labours of my fellow-countrymen in that highest depart- 

 ment of Physics, the just and natural arrangement of animated 

 beings. Writers on system are of two distinct clases; and 

 though each may pursue his inquiry by analysis or synthesis, 

 accorded to his own peculiar views, or rather the peculiar 

 constitution of his mental faculties, yet neither ever oversteps 

 the line of demarcation, or if he attempt to do so that attempt 

 is sure to be unsuccessful. One of these classes, comprehend- 

 ing at a view the whole expanse of nature, strives to mould 

 her according to some vast and preconceived idea ; the other 

 aims at placing each species, genus, and family, in its proper 

 situation as regards its neighbours, being perfectly indifferent 

 to, or considering of but small importance, the uniformity of the 

 whole. The first class of these systematists, however they 

 may dislike the appellation, must be called theoretical ; the 

 second are practical. The theorists certainly take the higher 

 ground, but must ever be indebted to the practical naturalists 

 for the facts from which their own deductions have resulted. 

 In the first class we have had, in this country, MacLeay and 

 Newman. In the second. Leach and Stephens.'' Between 

 the views of two of these writers I shall now attempt to prove 

 a very striking similarity, in which, if I succeed, I think it 



c Introd. to Ent. Vol. IV. p. 402.— Ed. 



'' Our correspondent must confine himself to entomology, or he could never 

 omit the great names of Ray, Lister, &c. among our ancestors, and our illustrious 

 contemporary Swainson. — Ed. 



