422 CLASSIFICATION. Chap. XIII. 



have inherited to a certain extent their characters. 

 This natural arrangement is shown, as far as is possible 

 on paper, in the diagram, but in much too simple a 

 manner. If a branching diagram had not been used, 

 and only the names of the groups had been written in 

 a linear series, it would have been still less possible to 

 have given a natural arrangement ; 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, on the view which I 

 hold, the natural system is genealogical in its arrange- 

 ment, like a pedigree ; but the degrees of modification 

 which the different groups have undergone, have to be 

 expressed by ranking them under different so-called 

 genera, sub - families, families, sections, orders, and 

 classes. 



It may be worth while to illustrate this view of classi- 

 fication, by taking the case of languages. If we pos- 

 sessed 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, had to 

 be included, such an arrangement would, I think, be 

 the only possible one. Yet it might be that some very 

 ancient language had altered little, and had given rise 

 to few new languages, whilst others (owing to the 

 spreading and subsequent isolation and states of civilisa- 

 tion of the several races, descended from a common 

 race) had altered much, and had given rise to many new 

 languages and dialects. The various degrees of differ- 

 ence in the languages from the same stock, would have 

 to be expressed by groups subordinate to groups ; but 

 the proper or even only possible arrangement would still 

 be genealogical; and this would be strictly natural, as 



