THE 



PHILOSOPHY 



OF 



NATURAL HISTORY. 



INTRODUCTION. 



CHAPTER I. 



OF THE NATURE OF LIVING BODIES, AND THE DISTINCTION 

 BETWEEN ANIMALS AND VEGETABLES. 



THE most superficial observers are in the habit of remark- 

 ing certain great and striking differences in the nature, struc- 

 ture, and qualities of the objects around them. They per- 

 ceive at once, that a stone is something very different from a 

 plant, and a plant something very different from an animal, 

 although they do not task themselves to determine exactly in 

 what the difference consists. It is natural, as well as con- 

 venient, for mankind to class things together according to their 

 most obvious characteristics ; and in this way we have come 

 into the use of a certain arrangement of natural bodies, not 

 founded upon a knowledge of their intimate nature and essen- 

 tial properties, but upon those qualities which produce the 

 most lively impressions on our senses after only a slight exami- 

 nation. Thus have been established the mineral, vegetable, 

 and animal kingdoms, which include under them all the ob- 

 jects of the material world. 



It is obvious that this arrangement is founded upon an ex 

 animation of ! those objects only, which are most within oui 

 immediate observation, and with whose qualities and propei 

 ties we have been most familiar./ We see that rocks and 

 mountains are immovably fixed to the same spot, and remain 

 always of the same size ; that the earth does not change its 

 surface except by the operation of violent and unusual causes 

 1 



