24: NAT URAL HISTORY 



All the natural sciences are so joined that no one 

 of them can be properly considered without some 

 aid from others ; or, at least, by so far introducing 

 them as to show the line of junction, as adjacent ter- 

 ritory is generally drawn in outline around any por- 

 tion of the earth that we wish to map with precision. 

 We have learned by the aid of Chemistry that 

 there are sixty-two kinds of matter. All of these 

 elements occurring in a simple state, and the com- 

 pounds of the whole number existing as natural 

 products, belong to this one lowest department of 

 Natural History Mineralogy. It is the same matter 

 indeed as is found in the higher departments, but 

 it is combined and controlled by inferior forces ; 

 chemical affinity being the highest force ever mani- 

 fested in a mineral. We have here hundreds of 

 substances making up the earth's crust, mingled in 

 seeming confusion, and many of them of- protean 

 form. These are to be sought out, and their true 

 nature discovered under their various disguises. 

 Were there no plan nor law in their structure, the 

 task would be hopeless. For where there is no re- 

 lationship, the study of one object can give no aid 



