isolated, will still occupy its proper intermediate position; for F
originally was intermediate in character between A and I, and the
several genera descended from these two genera will
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 arrangement, like a pedigree;
but the degrees of modification which the different groups have
undergone, have to be expressed by ranking them under different
so-called genera, sub-families, families, sections, orders, and
classes.
It may be worth while to illustrate this view of classification, by
taking the case of languages. If we possessed 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 civilisation 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 difference 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
it would connect together all languages, extinct and modern, by the
closest affinities, and would give the filiation and origin of each
tongue.
In confirmation of this view, let us glance at the classification of
varieties, which are believed or known to have descended from one
species. These are grouped under species, with sub-varieties under
varieties; and with our domestic productions, several other grades of
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