12 
PRELIMINARY TREATISE. 
the berberries: and such is the natural system which is to 
supersede the artificial system of Linnaeus. It is founded in 
part upon facts of no greater importance, in part on an 
assumed coincidence of a variety of points, concerning which 
the knowledge of man is still very imperfect, and which from 
time to time, as our information becomes more ample, evince 
themselves to have been incorrectly assumed. In conse- 
quence of the discovery of such lapses, fresh subdivisions 
are made, and new orders successively carved out of the 
wrecks of the original divisions, to be themselves overturned 
in like manner by fresh curtailments : and in the mean time 
the orders, between two and three hundred in number, are a 
mass of unfathomable confusion. 
There is but one mode of proceeding, with a view to 
place the divisions on a sound and durable footing, that is, 
to found every separation on a single fact, and to work 
downwards from the first division, with cautious examination 
of the relative importance and consequent priority of the 
facts, by which the subordinate divisions are to be limited. 
This has not yet been done ; but, whether I live to see it 
acomplished or not, I am confident that sooner or later it 
must be effected, because it is the only mode of classification 
consistent with nature. It has been a subject of very general 
complaint amongst those who, without having applied their 
minds to botanical study, are interested in the cultivation of 
plants, and consequently in the general outlines of botany, 
and especially in its nomenclature, that it appears to be based 
upon a very vague and changeable foundation; and the 
frequent alteration of the names, with which they were 
familiar, becomes a source of considerable annoyance. It 
must however be recollected, that if the alteration of name 
is consequent on the detection of an error in the preexisting 
arrangement, the retention of that which had been used 
before would be an irrational adherence to that which is false; 
and that our unwillingness to accede to alterations which 
arise necessarily from a corrected view of the subject, indicates 
an indolence of mind that would obstruct the progress of 
human knowledge. On the other hand it is no less evident, 
that if alterations are made capriciously and not based upon a 
correct and tangible foundation, discredit is thrown on the 
science by the instability of the views of its professors, and 
the students become disgusted on the very threshold of the 
building, which they are invited to enter and contemplate. 
