ELEMENTS 



NATURAL HISTORY. 



INTRODUCTION. 



Ihe 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 connection with the laws by 

 which they are governed, to investigate their structure, their history, 

 and their uses, is the province of the Naturalist. In its most extended 

 sense, Natural History embraces £ill the visible creation, and includes 

 every object in that creation, from the most magnificent of the celestial 

 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 subdivide and 

 arrange the objects of the material world into portions, suitable to the 

 powers and the intelligence of those whose province and interest it is 

 to investigate the wonders of creation. One great branch, termed 

 Natural Philosophy, has thus been divided into numerous depart- 

 ments, of which Dynamics, or the doctrine of the laws of motion and 

 its effects, and its subsidiary 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, mo- 

 tion, and qualities of light, form the science of Optics : the changes 

 that take place in the atmosphere, as they are perceived by the senses, 

 or indicated by instruments, is the object of Meteorology: and it is 

 the province of Chemistry, another great branch of Physical Science, 



