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 diflerent so-called 
genera, sub - famihes, 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 
