134 SPECIES AND BREEDS. 
CHAPTER X. 
SPECIES AND BREEDS. 
THERE remains but one more division of the 
Animal Kingdom for our consideration, the most 
limited of all in its circumscription, —that of 
Species. It is with the study of this kind of 
group that naturalists generally begin their inves- 
tigations. I believe, however, that the study of 
Species as the basis of a scientific education is a 
great mistake. It leads us to overrate the value of 
Species, and to believe that they exist in Nature 
in some different sense from the other groups; as 
if there were something more real and tangible in 
Species than in Genera, Families, Orders, Classes, 
or Branches. The truth is, that to study a vast 
number of Species without tracing the principles 
that combine them under more comprehensive 
groups is only to burden the mind with discon- 
nected facts, and more maybe learned by a faith- 
ful and careful comparison of a few Species than 
by a more cursory examination of a greater 
number. When one considers the immense 
number of Species already known, naturalists 
