xKi INTRODUCTORY OBSERVATIONS 



have been forgotten by these gentlemen, that science is founded upon 

 facts, and upon a cautious process of inductive and analogical reasoning 

 drawn from those facts : it has nothing to do with speculative opinion 

 or with metaphysical reasoning. The full knowledge of the Natural 

 System, or of the plan which Omnipotence pursued in Creation, none 

 but a madman or an enthusiast can ever hope to attain. But I have 

 yet to learn why we are to withhold that title from a system which 

 endeavours to reconcile all the appearances of Nature, and to explain 

 some part of her laws. A natural system in Botany is advocated and 

 adopted as such, without any one venturing to question the correct- 

 ness of the epithet ; but, in Zoology, it seems to be thought presump- 

 tuous to talk of the Natural System ; because, as it is urged, that 

 system, in all its bearings, can never be understood. As well may we 

 call the Solar System an artificial arrangement of the heavenly bodies. 

 As well may we maintain there are no natural laws in Chemistry, since all 

 the properties of inorganic matter have not, nor ever will be, discovered. 

 The structure and economy of an animal are as incontestable matters 

 of fact as the presence of any substance in the mineral world, and both 

 are equally legitimate instruments of reasoning. Until, therefore, we 

 come to the determination of rejecting that which is known, from a 

 consideration of that which is unknown, I must continue to esteem 

 the Hone Entomologies as the first and the most comprehensive 

 developement of the Natural System that has been given to the 

 world. The theory which it explains may be in parts detective, and 

 in others erroneous, but it has been pronounced by a most distin- 

 guished Naturalist, who even suspects its entire accuracy, to be " the 

 most consistent of any yet advanced, since it reconciles facts, which, 

 upon no other plan, can be reconciled*." Now, unless these facts are 

 fully and clearly explained by some other theory, and new harmonies 

 of creation brought to light, all the general reasoning or metaphysical 

 disputation that can be urged against it has, in my estimation, nothing 

 to do with the question at issue. 



I have stated thus much, not from any desire to uphold such parts 



* Kirby, Introd. to Entom , iv., p. 359. 



