XX 
THE USE OF SYSTEM. 
who are obstinately wedded to their systems and their classilica” 
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, 
