as a Branch of Natural History^ ^c. 215 



find a general and universal law as a consequence of the subor- 

 dinate laws by which nature is regulated. 



§ 8. Such is not the case with natural history ; it is not a 

 speculative, but a positive and descriptive science : it deals not 

 in the abstract properties of natural beings, but these beings 

 themselves, in their individual state, are the subjects of its in- 

 quiries. Its aim is to compare those beings with one another, 

 to point out their resemblances and their differences. If, for a 

 more thorough comparison of these beings, and for assembling 

 them by the properties and characters which are common to 

 them, natural history is called upon to abstract from them the 

 consideration of some of their properties ; such an abstraction 

 is never complete, never permanent ; it is but momentary, and 

 the consideration returns immediately to the being itself by 

 which the property has been furnished. Its mode of expression 

 is merely descriptive and comparative, and the method of expos- 

 ing the facts belonging to the science is not left to the arbitrary 

 will of the philosopher, its form is regulated by laws dependent 

 on the nature itself of the science ; it is that system of gradual 

 description, comparison, and definition, founded upon the va- 

 luation of characters, which is known by the name of Natural 

 method of classification. The grand aim of natural history 

 should be, to assemble together, in a great table, arranged ac- 

 cording to their most important mutual analogies, the whole of 

 the existing individual beings in the universe. 



§ 9- From these considerations, it is easy to see that chemis- 

 try and natural history are really two very distinct and separate 

 branches of human knowledge, and that, although they may 

 direct their attention towards the same natural beings, the way 

 in which each of these sciences consider these beings is material- 

 ly different. Chemistry considers only the abstract notion of 

 substance in any given body, its composition ^ the mode of com- 

 bination of the elementary or compound substances which enter 

 into its composition. Natural history considers the individual 

 body or being in itself, provided as it is with all its physical, ex- 

 ternal, and chemical properties, and inquires into its chemical 

 composition, merely that every attribute belonging to such an 

 individual may be known, and furnish n^eans of establishing a 



