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- 

 ral 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 Almighty Wisdom 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 vie%v 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 

 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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