22 THE EMPIRE 



Methodical arrangement, which is the foul of fcience, indicates every natural body 

 at fir ft fight, fo that it may be known by its own name ; and this name points out 

 whatever the induflry of the age has difcovered concerning the body to which it be- 

 longs : Thus, amidfl the greateft apparent confufion of things, the order of Nature is 

 feen to retain the highefl degree of exactnefs. This fyftematic arrangement is mod 

 conveniently divided into branches, fubordinate to each other, which have received va- 

 rious appellations ; thus, 



Clafs, Order, Genus, Species, Variety. 



Highefl genus, Intermediate genus, Proximate genus, Species, Individual. 



Province, Diftrict, Parifh, Ward, Hamlet. 



Legion, Batalion, Company, Mefs, Soldier. 



" For, unlefs natural bodies be reduced under regular order, and diftributed as in 

 " the divifions of a well regulated camp, every thing that is known concerning them 

 " mufl remain in confufion and uncertainty V 



The names and characters employed in fyflem mufl apply accurately to the order of 

 arrangement, and are therefore to be divided, as above, into Claries, Orders, Genera, 

 Species, and Varieties. The differential characters, which diftinguifh thefe divifions 

 and fubdivifions from each other mufl likewife occupy a principal part in fyftematic 

 arrangement ; for it is indifpenfibly neceffary to the knowledge of any individual, that 

 its name may be readily known and difcovered from among the reft ; " for if the 

 " names of things.be confufed, the whole fcience mufl fall into inextricable perplexi- 

 " ty f ." Hence one great employment of man, at the beginning of the world, muft 

 have been to examine created objefts, and to impofe on all the fpecies names according 

 to their kinds. 



The fcience of Nature is founded on an exa£l knowledge of the nomenclature of 

 natural bodies, and of their fyftematic arrangement ; this, like the clew of Ariadne, 

 enables a philofopher to travel alone, and in fafety, through the devious meanderings of 

 Nature's labyrinth. In this methodical arrangement, the Clafles and Orders are the 

 creatures of human invention, while the divifion of thefe into Genera and Species is 

 the work of Nature. All true knowledge refers finally to the fpecies of things, while, 

 at the fame time, what regards the generic divifions is fubftantial in its nature. 



One 



* Caefalpinus. t Ibid. 



