CLASSIFICATION OF INSECTS. 165 



present greater facility to the describer than any 

 other animals. 



610. When the known animals shall be so 

 arranged that each one is placed nearest to the 

 one which it most resembles, and a series thus 

 formed from which none shall be excluded, then 

 the arrangement will be perfect, and the natural 

 system will be discovered : this has been the 

 ultimate object of naturalists in all ages. 



611. In any abstract science, there is an 

 evident advantage in being able to determine 

 the names of every object, or group of objects ; 

 and so to allude to either, in speaking or writing, 

 as that all persons possessing a moderate know- 

 ledge of the science may at once form a definite 

 idea of what is meant. 



612. The power of intelligibly designating an 

 object, or a group of objects, is only to be attained 

 by a close attention to nomenclature ; science is 

 of no country : nomenclature should, therefore, 

 be entirely in a language common to all countries ; 

 and, by common consent, Latin has been adopted 

 as the language of science. 



613. In nomenclature, it is a sound plan to 

 revert to some standard authority; and, sup- 

 posing objects at any time subsequent to that 

 authority be described and named as new, to 

 strike out such new names as soon as the fact 

 shall be pointed out, and substitute the old 

 names in their right of priority : in all instances 



