ON NATURAL SYSTEMS. 197 
mind are limited. In adapting our terms, therefore, to the 
actual state of things, we shall consider that to be a natu- 
val system which endeavours to explain the multifarious 
relations which one object bears to another, not simply 
in their direct affinity, by which they follow each other 
like the links of a vast chain, but in their more remote 
relations ; whereby they typify or represent other 
objects, totally distinct in structure and organisation 
from themselves, by certain general laws. Hence it 
follows, that there may be many natural systems, or, 
rather, attempts at the partial discovery of that one 
which Antmigury Wispom pursued in the creation of 
irrational beings. This, therefore, is the true object of 
a natural classification ; and none which professes not 
to set out with this aim, and does not keep it in view as 
the goal to be arrived at, can claim the title of a natural 
system. Our first attempts at such a mode of studying | 
nature are comparatively easy: we begin from a given 
point, and the regular gradation which we are able to 
trace from one form to another, leads us to believe that 
the natural series is much more simple and easy of de- — 
tection than we at first imagined ; but, as we advance, 
we find the relations of our animals multiply: they 
tit 
seem, indeed, to preserve their line of affinity, but to | 
branch off in various directions to the right hand and to 
the left, until they blend into other races, far removed - 
from that with which we first commenced our enquiries. 
Here, then, our difficulties begin; and it is here that — 
the study of the natural system commences. It may | 
well be supposed that, on a subject so intricate, great 
diversity of opinions may arise, and that, while all such 
naturalists are striving at the discovery of one system, 
“the only one of nature,” that they may, in reality, 
produce several— all, indeed, professing to expound the 
same thing, but all doing so on a different theory, and 
with more or less success. How, then, it may be asked, 
are we to decide on their respective merits, and to 
which are we to give the preference? Our answer will 
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