152 STUDY OF NATURAL HISTORY. 
PART IIL. 
OF THE PRINCIPLES ON WHICH NATURAL HIS= 
TORY RELIES FOR ITS SUCCESSFUL PROSECUTION, 
AND THE CONSIDERATIONS BY WHICH THE NA- 
TURAL SYSTEM MAY BE DEVELOPED. 
CHAPLET. 
ON THE DISMISSAL OF PREJUDICE. 
(93.) Ir has been truly and forcibly urged*, that 
the dismissal of prejudice is absolutely essential to 
the prosecution of science: and we may add, that if 
there be any branch of physical knowledge which 
more especially calls for this dismissal; or whose 
progress, more than that of any other, has been im- 
peded by prejudice; it is that of natural history. 
We allude more especially to prejudices of opinion ; 
since those of sense, however they may arise in 
other sciences, are subordinate to this. Natural 
history is a science of facts and of inferences. The 
former regard structure and economy ; and as these, 
under favourable circumstances, can be investigated 

* Sir J. F. Herschel’s Discourse, p. 80. 
