xiv INTRODUCTION. 



and seasons, plants and animals, are all greatly influenced by the substance of which 

 the earth is composed ; and therefore, besides that, its more speculative range, there is a 

 great deal of practical usefulness in Geology. 



Mineralogy, the other division of the science of the mineral kingdom, admits of being 

 viewed in various lights ; the chief of which are, the natural appearances of minerals, and the 

 actions which they are capable of exerting upon each other, or upon other substances. It is 

 the first of these which strictly belongs to natural history ; and the general arrangement of it 

 will be found under the article MINERALOGY. 



From these short notices of the three kingdoms of nature (which may be considered as a 

 brief summary of the matter of this division of the British Cyclopaedia, as the preceding 

 remarks were of its plan) it will be apparent that the science which treats of any one branch 

 becomes the more clear and distinct the more that its characters are peculiarly its own, and 

 the further that they are removed from those general properties and laws of matter which 

 form the subject of the physical sciences. All the parts of Zoology may be rendered intelli- 

 gible without much reference to the rest of nature ; while Botany must either be, in a great 

 measure, confined to description, or reference must be made to the seasons and the weather 

 and if we do not take into account all the productions and operations of nature, the science 

 of Minerals must be simply descriptive. 



CONCLUSION. 



THOUGH, as has been stated in the preceding part of this article, there are no external 

 or popular characters by which the three kingdoms of nature can, on their confines (where 

 all their characters are faint and obscure,) be distinguished from each other ; yet there are 

 distinctions of a physiological character which are in themselves clear and specific ; and to 

 bear this in mind is of the utmost importance to all who study Natural History. 



Natural History has a tendency to produce in the mind certain effects which are not 

 produced by the other sciences. These sciences are simple in their principles ; and how far 

 soever the investigation of them may be carried, or how valuable soever may be their applica- 

 tions, they address themselves to the understanding only. But there can be small progress in 

 Natural History without bringing the feelings into operation ; and when these are excited, 

 the result may be good, or it may be evil. In the mechanical and chemical sciences, we csm 

 always see, and generally express, the relation between the cause or power and the conse- 

 quence or effect ; and when we have discovered the relation, or ratio, in one instance, we at 

 once conclude that it will be the same in all similar ones, so that the terms of all are merely 

 multiples, or submultiples, of each other ; and the law, when once investigated, has much 

 of the clearness and simplicity of a geometrical proposition, or may be stated numerically 

 and made the subject of arithmetical computation. But it is far different when we come 

 to study nature. Many phenomena, whether locomotive, of growth, or otherwise, take 

 place there, in which we can trace no measurable relation between the apparent cause and 

 the effect. There is, for instance, no relation between the size of seeds and that of the 

 plants which they produce; neither can we tell, from all our experience of the germination 

 of known seeds, whether an unknown one will grow slowly or rapidly. In the animal 

 kingdom, there is still more uncertainty more to perplex our reasoning and veil itself from 

 our scrutiny. We find, in animated nature, strength where we would be apt to look for 

 weakness, daring where we would predicate timidity, and, in an endless variety of cases, the 

 reverse of what we, reasoning as mechanical philosophers, would infer. 



Now, it is an acknowledged law of human nature, that where the understanding is 

 unable to reach the whole of any subject, the feelings invariably take up the remainder ; and 



