AUTHOR'S PREFACE TO THE TRANSLATION. 



IT is with no readiness or pleasure that I write introductions of 

 any kind, and usually abstain from doing so, partly because they 

 appear to me like a kind of apology or makeshift for the author, 

 and partly because the contents of the book itself should indicate 

 his status or position. With regard, however, to the history of the 

 work, some few words are certainly requisite for its Translation. 

 , I wrote the first Edition of 1810 in a kind of inspiration, and on 

 that account it was not so well arranged as a systematic work ought 

 to be. Now, although this may appear to have been amended in the 

 second and third edition, yet still it was not possible for me to com- 

 pletely attain the object held in view. The book has therefore 

 remained essentially the same as regards its fundamental principles, 

 such as those concerning the formation of matter, the protoplasmic 

 substance (Schleim-Substanz) and vesicular form of the organic 

 mass, the signification and function of the organs, as also the prin- 

 ciples of classification in Minerals, Plants and Animals, so that all 

 this is consequently as old as the first edition. It is only the 

 empirical arrangement into series of plants and animals, that has 

 been modified from time to time in accordance with the scientific 

 elevation of their several departments, or just as discoveries and 

 anatomical investigations have increased and rendered some other 

 position of the objects a matter of necessity. This susceptibility 

 to change will of course be persistent in the future, although the 

 principles themselves should continue wholly unchanged ; ay, the 

 very stability of the latter will tend the more to invite the naturalist 

 to the pursuit of empirical inquiries, by determining beforehand in 

 what direction he is to extend his point of view, and thus spare 

 himself the trouble of blindly and laboriously groping about in the 

 dense labyrinth of facts. Such a work therefore as the present 

 can only approximate completion through the progress made in 

 science, and each new edition will supply some defect of its prede- 

 cessor in the distribution or parcelling out of things. 



