198 ON SYSTEMATIC ZOOLOGY. 
be this: —The merits of a natural system are in pro- 
_ portion to the number and universality of the facts which 
/ it ean explain by certain general laws. The system, 
. therefore, which developes principles of the widest ap- 
plication, and brings the elements, if we may so term 
them, of natural classification into the narrowest com- 
pass, is that which obviously makes the nearest approach 
to nature, and, therefore, deserves to be distinguished, 
par excellence, as the natural system. 
(254.) From this definition of a natural system, as 
opposed to one that is artificial, it becomes extremely 
difficult to name that naturalist who deserves to be placed 
first on our present list. Many of the groups of 
Aristotle are, undoubtedly, natural, and will stand as 
such, in opposition to the neglect they received from 
subsequent zoologists ; yet others, in the same system, 
are in the highest degree artificial. The same may be 
said both in regard to the systems of Willughby: and 
of Linneus ; yet both these are more properly artificial 
systems, for they merely attempt to combine the groups 
in detached portions of a simple series, without any 
reference to their remote relations. Now, as this latter 
train of enquiry is that more especially in which the 
essence of the natural system consists, we may probably 
regard Hermann as the first who, in regard to animals, 
entered into any details on this interesting subject. His 
work, entitle! Tabula Affinitatum Animalium, printed 
in 1785, contains numerous comparisons, and many 
valuable observations, on the resemblances which differ- 
ent animals bear to each other. But the materials he 
has thus brought together do not appear to have been 
applied to any definite or general result ; and it has been 
justly observed *, that Hermann seemed to have no clear 
perception of the difference between analogy and affinity, 
although, like most others who had gone before him, he 
did not confound them when treating of very remote 
® Linn. Trans. vol. xvi. p. 15, &c. 
