ELEMENTS 



OF 



NATURAL HISTORY. 



INTRODUCTION. 



THE object of Natural History is the Material World, and the 

 various classes of organized and inorganic bodies which form 

 its component parts. To examine and arrange these in con- 

 nection with the laws by which they are governed, to investi- 

 gate their structure, their history, and their uses, is the pro- 

 vince of the Naturalist. In its most extended sense, Natural 

 History embraces all the visible creation, and includes every 

 object in that creation, from the most magnificent of the ce- 

 lestial bodies to the smallest insect or particle of dust which is 

 found in the globe inhabited by men. A field so extensive, 

 compared with the limited powers of the human faculties, is 

 too vast for the subject of individual research ; and in detail its 

 objects are so numerous, that to possess a knowledge of even 

 a small portion of these, has been considered a competent task 

 for a life spent in investigation. 



For this reason it has become matter of necessity to subdi- 

 vide and arrange the objects of the material world into portions, 

 suitable to the powers and the intelligence of those whose pro- 

 vince and interest it is to investigate the wonders of Creation. 

 One great branch, termed NATURAL PHILOSOPHY, has thus 

 been divided into numerous departments, of which DYNAMICS, 

 or the doctrine of the laws of motion and its effects, and its sub- 

 sidiary divisions, Statics, Hydrostatics, &c. offer a wide field to 

 investigation. The observation of the positions and revolutions 

 of the Heavenly bodies has become the province of that branch 

 of Natural Science denominated ASTRONOMY ; the nature, 



VOL. I. A 



