14 



ought to pursue, from those which are unsuitable to our 

 nature. The descriptions of Natural History, both with 

 relation to the organic and inorganic kingdoms, relate to 

 the sensible qualities of bodies ; and there is this great 

 satisfaction attending all their details, that they are 

 founded on observation and experience, and their evi- 

 dence rests on the established laws of thought. The des- 

 cription of a natural body, whether animal, vegetable, or 

 mineral, consists in an enumeration of its various proper- 

 ties, either ascertained by simple observation, or discovered 

 by the aid of experiment, which is only a more refined 

 mode of observation. By the ordinary laws of asso- 

 ciation, our perceptions are grouped together, to form 

 that assemblage of properties we ascribe to external bodies. 

 And although we have no means of ever discovering any 

 connexion or relation between the immediate objects of our 

 consciousness and the beings to which we refer them, we 

 use the descriptive terms red, green, warm, cold, sweet, 

 bitter, and many others, without the least ambiguity or 

 impropriety, to express the qualities of bodies. It is ob- 

 vious, however, that they express only sensations, which, 

 without mind, could have no existence in the universe. 

 The existence or non-existence of a substratum connecting 

 the supposed qualities of bodies, cannot therefore affect the 

 propriety of the language employed in Natural History, 

 or the accuracy of its descriptions, which, provided they 

 correspond with all the ideas produced by the objects de- 

 scribed, will be equally true, whether the objects be in 

 their essence spiritual or material. 



The definite descriptions which Natural History re- 

 quires, are applicable only to a small portion of the visible 

 universe. The vast distances of the celestial bodies pre- 

 clude all scientific examination of the materials of which 

 they are composed, and the Naturalist merely determines 

 the influence they exert on animate and inanimate beings. 

 Their relations to each other, and the grand and interest- 

 ing phenomena they exhibit, their magnitudes and dis- 



