A BROAD FOUNDATION 35 



known about natural history, we may over- 

 look the necessity for the student acquiring a 

 general acquaintance with the relations of the 

 several portions of the subject. The scientist 

 can afford to devote his attention to one 

 branch, and to become a specialist in it, but 

 the ordinary student of Nature must aim 

 at the acquisition of at least a moderate 

 knowledge of the main divisions. 



Strictly speaking, natural history compre- 

 hends all the sciences which treat of animals, 

 vegetables, and minerals, but the student at 

 the outset may confine his attention to the 

 first two groups. These comprehend a great 

 variety of forms beasts, birds, reptiles and 

 fishes ; insects, spiders, shellfish, worms, and 

 lower organisms ; flowers, shrubs, and trees ; 

 mosses, ferns, fungi, and seaweeds. Those 

 forms have been arranged in a definite 

 sequence in sub-kingdoms, classes, orders, 

 families and genera ; but no perfect system 

 has yet been devised, and there is much 

 diversity of opinion among experts. 



When we try to define the system of 

 Nature, we are like men set to put together 

 a huge dissected puzzle, the parts of which 



