492 Mr. BiciiENO on Si/stems and Methods 



is destructive, as it appears to me, of his system as a means of 

 general reasoning. 



In no department of natural history are the inconveniences 

 arising out of this confusion of analysis and synthesis more felt 

 than in Entomology. The multitude of species included in this 

 kingdom of nature is so great, that it requires the most skilful 

 arrangement to enable the student to determine them : vet it 

 is imquestionably the worst furnished with assistance in this 

 way; — a defect which may be attributed chietly, I apprehend, to 

 the attempt which both we and our continental neighbours have 

 made to combine the natural with the artificial system. We have 

 aimed at analysis and synthesis at the same time. A compre- 

 hensive acquaintance with this infinitely varied tribe can alone 

 enable us to synthesise with safety ; and a long period must 

 elapse before we can hope to embrace within our synthesis the 

 whole of the insect world. 



In the large views taken by means of the natural system, our 

 lousiness will for ever be the labour of separating what we shall 

 know from that which is unknown. The profoundest knowledge 

 will at last be but a fragment. Some groups of nature are so 

 closely related, that they have been observ ed from time imme- 

 morial. " Whatsoever parteth the hoof and is cloven-footed, 

 and cheweth the cud," comprehends a group of animals so ob- 

 viously connected, that they must have received a generic ap- 

 pellation from the remotest period. As knowledge has increased, 

 more and more families have been separated : still there is al- 

 ways a remainder of unknown things. '! ake any natural system, 

 and see if this is not the case. Linnœus in his " Fragments of 

 a Natural Method" professes only to separate from the mass 

 those groups which he saw clearly. Again, his definition of 

 vegetables indicates the same truth : " Vegetabilia comprehen- 

 dunt Familias septem, Fungos, A/gas, Mnscos, Filices, Gramina, 

 V almas :" and then, to include the remainder, he adds, " et 



Plantas :" 



