132 FALSE ANALOGIES. 



whatever else it may be upon which the order is 

 founded, then truly the formation of the order is a 

 very idle matter on the part of him who establishes 

 it, and a very deceptive matter to those who seek for 

 information from it. The name of the order, or other 

 group, should, no doubt, be founded upon one of the 

 most striking- coincidences in the genera that compose 

 it ; but if there are not other coincidences behind to 

 which that one is the key, then any attempt to get 

 information from the system \\-ill be somewhat like an 

 attempt to get a knowledge of Macedonia from 

 Fkiellin's comparison between it and Monmouth : — 

 " There's a river at ^lonmouth, and Til pe pound 

 there's a river at INIacedonia ; and they call it Wye at 

 Monmouth, and it is out of my prains vrhat they call 

 it at Macedonia ; but it is as like as my fingers to mj- 

 fingers, and there's sawmons in them both." This, 

 though not brought out with the same graphic expo- 

 sure of its absurdity, is very often the kind of analogy 

 which the systematists in natural history propound for 

 the edification of mankind ; and even the acute mind 

 of Cuvier, which was less frequently bewildered than 

 that of most naturalists, must have been lost in the 

 fog when he united the pigeons with the gallinidee. 



To those who already know the characters and 

 habits of birds, or any other animals, it is of little 

 consequence in what juxtaposition the several kinds 

 of them are presented ; but those who have the know- 

 ledge to acquire, and resort to the system for aid in 

 the acquiring of it, of necessity conclude that there is 

 some general correspondence in the nature of those 

 which are united in the same order, or other division ; 

 and if, as in the case of poultry and pigeons, there is 

 regJly no such correspondence, they eitJier waste their 

 time in vain search after that which is not to be 



