152 STUDY OF NATURAL HISTORY. 



PART III. 



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. 



CHAPTER I. 



ON THE DISMISSAL OF PREJUDICE. 



(93.) It 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. 



