28 ZOOLOGICAL PHILOSOPHY 



by almost insurmountable difficulties ; and the finest effort of man 

 to set up the means of recognising and distinguishing the works of 

 nature is changed into an immense maze, into which most men 

 naturally hesitate to plunge." (Discours d'ouvert. du cours de 1806, 

 pp. 5 and 6.) 



Here we have a picture of the results of omitting to distinguish 

 what really belongs to artifice from what is in nature, and of not having 

 endeavoured to discover rules for the less arbitrary determination 

 of the divisions which have to be established. 



