ELEMENTS 
OF 
NATURAL HISTORY. 
INTRODUCTION. 
Tue skject 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 all the visible ereation, 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 
iimited powers of the human faculties, is too vast for the subject of 
wndividual 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 Putosopny, 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 im the atmosphere, as they are perceived by the senses, 
or indicated by instruments, is the object of Merrorotocy: and it is 
the province of Cuemstry, another great branch of Physical Science, 
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