INTRODtT&PJON. 



. 1. NATURE. 



In the sciences, the word Nature is used under 

 three different significations. In the first, it de- 

 notes the general idea of the natural bodies alto- 

 gether, or the compass of natural existence ; in the 

 second, the assemblage of the properties of a single 

 body, or the constitution and appearances of things ; 

 in the third, it is used for expressing the power or 

 cause which produces them. 



These significations are contained in the following ex- 

 amples. " There are bodies in Nature very much resem- 

 bling, and yet different from, each other." " It Is in the 

 nature of gold to be ductile, heavy, &c." " Nature pro- 

 duces different species of animal, vegetable, and mineral 

 bodies." 



. & NATURAL HISTORY. 



The object of Natural History is Nature consi- 

 dered as the assemblage of all material bodies. 



The name of Natural History, does not express the es- 

 sential properties of the science to which it is applied, and 

 has therefore been used in a very improper sense. Na- 

 tural History is by no means a historical science ; it has 

 no business with accidents or facts, but refers to objects, of 

 which it is indifferent whether they exist contemporane- 

 ously or consecutively ; and it considers these objects either 

 singly, or in such relations as they are brought into, by 



VOL. i. A 



