METHODS OF STUDY IN NATURAL 



HISTORY. 



CHAPTER I. 



GENERAL SKETCH OF THE EARLY PROGRESS IN 

 NATURAL HISTORY. 



IT is my intention, in this series of papers, to 

 give the history of the progress in Natural His- 

 tory from the beginning, to show how men 

 first approached Nature, how the facts of Nat- 

 ural History have been accumulated, and how 

 these facts have been converted into science. In 

 so doing, I shall present the methods followed 

 in Natural History on a wider scale and with 

 broader generalizations than if I limited myself 

 to the study as it exists to-day. The history of 

 humanity, in its efforts to understand the Crea- 

 tion, resembles the development of any individ- 

 ual mind engaged in the same direction. It 

 has its infancy, with the first recognition of 

 surrounding objects ; and, indeed, the early ob- 

 servers seem to us like children in their first at- 

 tempts to understand the world in which they 



