ITS GENERAL NATURE AND ADVANTAGES. 95 



matter, whether ponderable or imponderable, whether 

 the objects we contemplate are visible to the eye, 

 palpable to the touch, or invisible agents known 

 only by their effects. 



(43.) But the human mind, limited in its powers, 

 is compelled to relinquish the study of universal 

 nature, and to confine its researches to distinct 

 portions. Hence has originated the necessity of in- 

 stituting those numerous divisions in natural phi- 

 losophy, respectively assigned to the astronomer, 

 the chemist, and the physiologist. These pursuits, 

 like others of a subordinate nature, are no longer 

 considered as forming a part of natural history, 

 properly so called; although, in a general sense, 

 they strictly and exclusively emanate from the study 

 of nature. Geology, in like manner, separates itself 

 as a distinct department; not because it merely 

 embraces terrene objects, but because it relates more 

 to the situation, than to the analysis, of the com- 

 ponent parts of our globe. Its chief business is to 

 trace and explain the changes and revolutions which 

 have happened to the earth ; but not, like mineralogy, 

 to determine the primary elements of which it is 

 composed. Natural history, thus restricted, may, in 

 a philosophic sense, be termed the study of ponder- 

 able matter, or, to state this definition in more popular 

 language, it is the province of natural history to 

 embrace all that concerns the three great divisions 

 or kingdoms of nature, — the animal, the vegetable, 

 and the mineral. Such is the view which, in common 

 with some of the highest authorities, we propose to 

 take of this science. And although our subsequent 

 remarks will chiefly relate to the animal kingdom, 



