143 



PART II. 



COLLECTANEA. 



Art. I. The General Svhject. 



Universal Language of Natural History. — If the scientific Latin and 

 Greek names of plants, animals, and minerals were adopted, without alter.- 

 ation, in the languages of all nations, this would, to a certain extent, be a 

 universal language. It would be a considerable point of union between two 

 strangers to call a considerable number of the things with which they were 

 surrounded by the same names ; and, in very remote and distant lands, this 

 would operate like a kind of free-masonry. Each would be convinced that 

 the other was, to a certain extent, initiated like himself in the mysteries of 

 Nature. Let none, therefore, despise the mere acquirement of systematic 

 names ; and let them always be adopted, in general language, without alter- 

 ing their terminations. — Cond. 



Mischiefs arising from Changes in Nomenclature. — An affected and un- 

 reasonable contempt for the Linnean arrangement has for some time pre- 

 vailed amongst naturalists of a certain reforming description ; finding it 

 necessary, as they must, in order to pave the way for their own improved 

 system, to inspire readers with this feeling. The Linnean system certainly 

 has many and great defects ; and no one was more sensible of these, nor 

 would have been more eager to remove them when means and occasion 

 should serve, than the father of classification himself. He had, in fact, 

 pointed out the plan by which his arrangement might be altered or im- 

 proved ; but, in the mean time, he was obliged to rest satisfied with what 

 had been done, and leave to futurity the business of adapting it to the pro- 

 gress of discovery. But, suppose the despised standard of the illustrious 

 Swede were too old and ragged to be any longer fought under, would it 

 have disparaged the importance of any author on natural history to have 

 enrolled himself under the banners of such a man as Cuvier, who appeared 

 at the moment when he was wanted, and who combines so much of the 

 artificial and natural modes of arrangement as is required for prosecuting 

 successfully, for a time at least, the study of natural history ? Here was a 

 naturalist par excellence et par occupatioji, a man placed by acclamation at 

 the head of European naturalists, and entitled to give the law. Was his 

 sovereignty insupportable, or would science have retrograded by submitting 

 to his sway ? One would make every allowance for ambition or egotism, 

 and refrain from passing any harsh sentence on the numerous aspirants in 

 this department ; but they, one and all, seem to forget that they are but 

 amateurs. Most of them have never made of it a profession ; they have 

 not devoted their lives to the subject ; they have merely fancied it, and made 

 it a pastime. What entitles them to originate systems ? Yet do they not 

 scruple to seat themselves in the chair of authority, and frame classes, 

 orders, genera and subgenera, divisions and subdivisions, by the score. To 

 such an extent does this propensity rage, that, if one wish to identify a 

 specimen, it will be necessary to have at hand a number of works for the 



