214 CLASSIFICATION. [Chap. XIV. 



supposed to have been but little modified, and they form 

 a single genus. But this genus, though much isolated, 

 will still occupy its proper intermediate position. The 

 representation of the groups, as here given in the dia- 

 gram on a flat surface, is much too simple. The 

 branches ought to have diverged in all directions. If 

 the names of the groups had been simply written down 

 in a Unear series, the representation would have been 

 still less natural; and it is notoriously not possible to 

 represent in a series, on a flat surface, the affinities 

 which we discover in nature amongst the beings of the 

 same group. Thus, the natural system is genealogical 

 in its arrangement, like a pedigree: but the amount of 

 modification which the different groups have under- 

 gone" has to be expressed by ranking them under dif- 

 ferent so-called genera, sub-families, families, sections, 

 orders, and classes. 



It may be worth while to illustrate this view of 

 classification, by taking the case of languages. If we 

 possessed a perfect pedigree of mankind, a genealogical 

 arrangement of the races of man would afford the best 

 classification of the various languages now spoken 

 throughout the world; and if all extinct languages, and 

 all intermediate and slowly changing dialects, were to 

 be included, such an arrangement would be the only 

 possible one. Yet it might be that some ancient lan- 

 guages had altered very little and had given rise to few 

 new languages, whilst others had altered much owing to 

 the spreading, isolation, and state of civiUsation of the 

 several co-descended races, and had thus given rise to 

 many new dialects and languages. The various degrees 

 of difference between the languages of the same stock, 

 would have to be expressed by groups subordinate to 



