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LECTURE II. 



The propensity to observe and compare 

 surrounding objects, seems natural to man. 

 We find even children pleased with examin- 

 ing and assorting stones, spars, metals, and 

 other specimens of mineralogy ; still more 

 gratified with those beautifiil objects, flowers ; 

 and even in a greater degree with moving 

 beings, which, on that account, claim a 

 kind of alliance with themselves. Yet so 

 diversified are the subjects of nature, in 

 each of these departments, that it requires 

 the constant application of any individual 

 to render himself a distinguished character 

 either as a mineralogist, a botanist, or a 

 zoologist. Linneus, whose knowledge of 

 natural history was so extensive and exact, 

 perceived the necessity of some system of 

 mnemonics, by which we might remember 

 and survey the whole. He therefore formed 

 an arbitrary arrangement of these subjects, 

 and chiefly from their external characters. 



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