NOMENCLATURE AND CLASSIFICATION. 15 



CHAPTER II. 



NOMENCLATURE AND CLASSIFICATION. 



Proceeding upon the view that there is a closo 

 analogy between the way in which every individ- 

 ual student penetrates into Nature and the pro- 

 gress of science as a whole in the history of hu- 

 manity, I continue my sketch of the successive 

 steps that have led to our present state of knowl- 

 edge. I began with Aristotle, and showed that 

 this great philosopher, though he prepared a 

 digest of all the knowledge belonging to his 

 time, yet ffid not feel the necessity of any sy- 

 tern or of any scientific language differing from " 

 the common mode of expression of his day. He 

 presents his information as a man with his eyes 

 open narrates in a familiar style what he sees. 

 As civilization spread and science had its repre- 

 sentatives in other countries besides Greece, it ^ 

 became indispensable to have a common scien- 

 tific language, a technical nomenclature, combin- 

 vng many objects under common names, and 

 enabling every naturalist to express the results 

 of his observations readily and simply in a man- 



