PROCEEDINGS OF SOCIETIES. 
107 
Do not be alarmed at the word system. The whole Linnaean mode of classifi¬ 
cation is comprehended in this large scene, painted expressly for our lectures, in 
order that you may have it constantly before the eye, and that it may be thus 
learnt by constant reference, along with those plants requisite to illustrate the 
different classes and orders of the system. 
In this lecture they were examined in detail. 
Lecture V. Commencing with the Genera. 
No system, not even our boasted natural arrangements, can be perfect. The 
Linnasan has its incongruities, but these by no means detract from its value. 
The separation, in most cases unavoidable, from their natural groups or affinities, 
is no obstacle to our obtaining a knowledge of their names. These must be 
ascertained before we examine their mutual relations and properties. The object 
of Linnaeus was to form a system which might facilitate our investigation of 
the vegetable world, enable us to refer a plant to its proper genera and species, 
and also aid the memory in preserving its name when ascertained. These objects 
the Linnsean is, beyond all others, best enabled to effect, as admitted even by 
those who complain most of its defects, but who notwithstanding owe much of 
their knowledge to this system. 
For beginners none other is capable of affording any sufficient aid. Names, we 
repeat, must be learned before the properties and organization of plants can be 
usefully studied, as letters must be known before we are able to read, and 
principles before they can be reduced to practice. By comparison alone we distin¬ 
guish plants like other objects, differences, some near, some remote. All methods 
of arrangement must be more or less artificial, and like systems of 
artificial memory (for all scientific systems are nothing more when properly 
investigated), that is the best which enables us to comprehend and remember 
most, and from which we can most rapidly gather, define, and associate ideas. 
Some philosophers, in their great pride and wisdom, have rejected system 
altogether, because, forsooth, Nature knows nothing of it. She does not work 
according to any of these rules. Be it so; yet we will not despise the means, 
poor, scanty and imperfect though they are, by which we gradually acquire, and 
remember what we acquire; any more than we would despise an alphabetical 
arrangement of words, the most artificial that can be devised, and throw aside our 
dictionaries, because those words are not placed according to their analogies, 
affinities, or derivations. 
A genus, for instance Veronica or Ranunculus , has, besides its permanent 
characters in class and order, others which, though not so general and compre¬ 
hensive, are yet fixed and unchanging as those by which its class and order are 
determined. These characters are founded in Nature, and therefore constitute 
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