OF NATURAL PHILOSOPHY. 137 



known, by far the greater part have never yet been 

 formed, although hundreds of new ones are coming 

 to light, in perpetual succession, as the science ad- 

 vances ; all of which are to be named as they 

 arise. The objects of astronomy are, literally, as 

 numerous as the stars of heaven ; and although not 

 more than one or two thousand require to be ex- 

 pressed by distinct names, yet the number, respect- 

 ing which particular information is required, is not 

 less than a hundred times that amount ; and all these 

 must be registered in lists, (so as to be at once re- 

 ferred to, and so that none shall escape,) if not by 

 actual names, at least by some equivalent means. 



(131.) Nomenclature, then, is, in itself, undoubt- 

 edly an important part of science, as it prevents our 

 being lost in a wilderness of particulars, and involved 

 in inextricable confusion. Happily, in those great 

 branches of science where the objects of classifi- 

 cation are most numerous, and the necessity for a 

 clear and convenient nomenclature most pressing, 

 no very great difficulty in its establishment is felt. 

 The very multitude of the objects themselves 

 affords the power of grouping them in subordinate 

 classes, sufficiently well defined to admit of names, 

 and these again into others, whose names may be- 

 come attached to, or compounded with, the former, 

 till at length the particular species is identified. 

 The facility with which the botanist, the entomo- 

 logist, or the chemist, refers by name to any indivi- 

 dual object in his science shows what may be ac- 

 complished in this way when characters are them- 

 selves distinct. In other branches, however, con- 

 siderable difficulty is experienced. This arises 



