XX 



THE USE OF SYSTEM. 



who are obstinately wedded to their systems and their classifica- 

 tions ; but though I should say to these, — if you like the pursuit 

 by all means go on, yet I cannot in duty recommend it to such 

 as aim at philosophic and extended views of nature. When there 

 was brought to Philip of Macedon a man who could throw mil- 

 let seed through a needle's eye without ever missing, instead of 

 admiring his dexterity, the king ordered a bushel of millet seed to 

 be given him, that so useful an art might not languish for lack of 

 materials. I am disposed to consider mere systematists much in 

 the same light, even at the hazard of being visited by their con- 

 tempt or their vituperation. To me such will always, I trust, 

 prove harmless. 



Assuming the preceding views to be those best calculated for 

 enlarging the mind and for leading the thoughts of an observer 

 through nature up to nature's God, which ought always to be 

 the chief object of a true naturalist, it may be useful to apply 

 them as a test by which to estimate the value of one or two of 

 the leading systems, in so far as they concern birds. In doing 

 this, my sole motive is to point out to the student what may be 

 useful to him, in attending only to sound principles, and in avoid- 

 ing what appear to me to be unprofitable fancies or pernicious 

 errors. Such is indeed one of the most difficult and dangerous tasks 

 which an author can undertake, — difficult, because it requires very 

 laborious research and careful discrimination to distinguish be- 

 tween the false and the true ; and dangerous, because every fancy 

 which is dissipated by facts, every error tried by the touchstone 

 of truth and refuted, is certain to engender a host of enemies — ran- 

 corous in proportion to the completeness of defeat — among the 

 framers of systems, or their admirers and disciples ; while those 

 who are not thus partizans of a party, are generally swayed by the 

 authority of the greatest name, rather than by the merits of a cause. 

 It would be folly in me to pretend to be free from such preju- 

 dices as are incident to human nature ; but though I am anxious 

 to study the observations of eminent naturalists, to assist me 

 in seeing what I might otherwise have been ignorant of, or have 

 overlooked, yet I do not feel myself disposed to bend even to 

 the authority of Aristotle, Ray, or any other eminent observer, 

 when I find this opposed by plain facts. The exposure of error 

 is unquestionably the imperative duty of every public writer, 



