86 Mr. Lindley's Account of the Spherical and 



follow in enumerating the productions of nature ; but if one way 

 is more certain and more facile than another, that is surely to be 

 preferred. 



To me it appears most advisable to commence with that which 

 is most perfect, most completely developed, and therefore most 

 easily understood; and thence to descend to forms of a more im- 

 perfect kind, and therefore of a more doubtful nature. The 

 half-developed portions of the lower forms would never be under- 

 stood, if they were not more completely developed in the higher 

 forms. This is the path which is pointed out both by experience 

 and common sense; the idea of a seed is not derived from an 

 Uredo, nor that of a vegetable from an Erineum ; but the re- 

 verse. 



This is especially true of those lower spheres which bring up 

 the rear : the last point of simplicity will never be attained, and 

 will never be determined ; although our microscopes are daily 

 extending our views, the poles of vitality will never be reached. 

 It is better therefore to set out from a certain point (the centre) 

 than from an uncertain point ( the circumference) which may be 

 extended to infinity. 



So it is more wise in studying Man, to take our notions of hu- 

 manity from those in whom it exists in the highest degree of per- 

 fection, rather than to search over-curiously for a man whose in- 

 tellect is approximating to that of animals. 



§ 13. In a systematic arrangement the higher forms are al- 

 ways to be taken before the lower. 



The highest arrangement is always to be taken from the highest 

 and most essential characters — from each highest character ori- 

 ginates a particular section — and all the sections which are sub- 

 ordinate to this character are to be comprehended under its 

 common title. The higher the distinction, the greater its dignity 

 and importance. 



Nature is always passing into series in polar opposition : hence 

 a dichotomous mode of distribution is not only the most natural, 

 but almost the only true one. Logic and nature, which are ever 

 in accordance, prove this continually. Thus, for instance, na- 

 tural bodies are more properly divided into organic and inorganic, 

 than, overlooking this distinction, into minerals, plants, and ani- 

 mals ; so also is the distribution of vegetables into cotyledoneous 

 and acotyledoneous preferable to that of monocotyledoneous and 

 dicotyledoneous. 



But as the most sacred things are the most open to abuse, so 

 also is the dichotomous disposition, which is of the highest value 

 when nature is strictly followed, the most artificial of all when 

 arbitrary distinctions take the place of those which are essential ; 

 as the analytical index of Lamarck. Many for this reason alto- 

 gether object to such a form of arrangement ; but the abuse of 

 a thing does not destroy its use. 



When the members of a bipartite section are again dichoto- 

 mously divided upon analogous principles, four sections are cre- 

 ated, 



