THE 



ANIMAL KINGDOM. 



INTRODUCTION. 



SECT. I NATURAL HISTORY IN GENEttAL, AND METHODS OF ARRANGEMENT. 



Nature — Division of the Physical Sciences — Natural History — General Principles 

 — Conditions of ExistencCy or Final Causes — Observation — Classification — Arti^ 

 ficial or Natural — Subordination of Characters. 



We deem it necessary to commence our work by clearly defining the ob- 

 ject of Natural History, and by establishing a precise hne of demarcation, 

 so as to separate this science from others, to which it is nearly allied. 

 This is tlie more requisite, as confused and indistinct notions on the 

 subject very generally prevail. 



Various significations have been applied to the term Nature, in our 

 language as well as in most others; — sometimes it denotes the qualities of 

 a being derived from original constitution, as distinguished from those ac- 

 quired by art ; — sometimes it signifies the vast concourse of beings com- 

 posing the universe ; — and sometimes the laws which govern those beings. 

 It is especially in this last sense that we are accustomed to personify Na- 

 ture; and, from a proper feeling of respect, to use this term for the name 

 of its divine Author. Physics, or Physical Science, may consider nature 

 in any of these three points of view. 



The name of the Supreme Being, which never ought to be pronounced without 

 emotion, could not be introduced into philosophical discussions upon every occasion, 

 without a violation of decorum. Accordingly, it has become an established practice to 

 use the milder term Nature, as an appellation of similar import. This is done with- 

 out any intention of deifying the powers of nature. On the contrary, the best and 

 wisest natural philosophers agree with Dr Clarke in considering " that there is 

 no such thing as what we commonly call the course of nature, or the power of na- 

 ture. The course of nature, truly and properly speaking, is nothing else than the 

 will of God, producing certain effects in a continued, regular, constant, and uniform 

 manner, which course or manner of acting being in every moment perfectly arbitrary, 

 is as easy to be altered at any time as to be preserved. So that all those things 

 which we commonly say are the effects of the natural powers of matter and laws of 

 motion, of gravitation, attraction, and the like, are indeed (if we will speak strictly 

 and properly) the effects of God's acting upon matter, continually and every moment, 

 either immediately by himself, or mediately by some created intelligent being." In 

 these and following passages, the term law is used in a metaphorical sense. An 

 ordinary law of civil society is addressed by an intelligent legislator to persons, 

 capable both of understanding the meaning of the law, and of regulating their actions 

 accordingly. But, when we use the phrases law of vegetable life, law of gravitation, 

 it is evident that the word is used in a sense widely different from the former. Na- 

 ture, that is, the Supreme Being, not only prescribes the law, but executes it; a law 

 of nature being nothing more than that particular regxUar mode of acting which the 

 Deity has prescribed to himself. 



Pliysical Science is either general or particular. 



When we deduce effects from causes, and, by explaining the various phenomena of 

 nature, obtain the power of applying the materials she presents to purposes useful to 

 mankind, it is termed General Physics, or Natural Philosophy; but, when we con- 

 sider the various objects presented by Nature, simply for the purpose of obtaining a 

 knowledge of their order, their arrangement, and the disposition of their parts, without 

 referring effects to their causes, it is termed Particular Physics, or Natural History. 

 It thus appears, that while Natural Philosophy is the ultimate object of science, Na- 

 tural History is the source whence all science must necessarily arise. The former is 

 unrivalled for sublimity of ideas and depth of investigation, the latter for variety of 

 character and interest in its details. While Natural Philosophy is best fitted to occupy 

 the mind in its severer moments. Natural History affords an agreeable relief, by the 

 general beauty of its objects, the elegance of their forms, the richness of their colour- 

 ing, the singularity of their habits and instincts, and the exquisite adaptation of all 

 their parts. Both alike lead us to form elevated and enhghtened conceptions of the 

 power and bcneRcence of the Creator. 



General Physics examines, in an abstract manner, each of the pro- 

 perties of those moveable and extended bodies, to which wo apply the 

 general term matter. 



That branch called Mechanics considers the particles of matter as col- 

 lected in masses, and deduces mathematically, from a very small number 

 of experiments, the laws of equilibrium, of motion, and of its communi 

 cation. Its several divisions take the names of Statics, Dynamics, Hy- 

 drostatics, Hydrodynamics, Aerostatics, S:c. according to the nature of 

 the bodies, the motions of which are under examination.' Optics consi- 

 ders solely the peculiar vibrations of light; but in this science various 

 phenomena, ascertained entirely by experiment, are daily becoming more 

 numerous. 



Chemisiri/, the other division of General Physics, explains the laws, by 

 v.'hich the elementary particles of bodies act on each other, at indefinitely 

 small distances; the combinations or decompositions resulting from the 

 affinity of their ultimate elements ; and the manner in which the operation 

 of affinity is modified by various circumstances, capable of increasing or 

 diminishing its action. Being chiefl)- an experimental science, it cannot, 

 on that account, be classed with others more exclusively mathematical. 



The theories of heat and electricity may belong almost equally to Me- 

 chanics or to Chemistry, according to the point of view in which each 

 of them is considered. 



Tlic mode of proceeding adopted in all the departments of General Phy- 

 sics is, to consider, either mentally or experimentally, only a small number 

 of the properties of bodies at once, in order to reduce them to the greatest 

 attainable simplicity; then, to calculate or discover the effijcts resulting 

 therefrom ; and finallj-, to generahze and incorporate the laws of these pro- 

 perties so as to form series of theorems; and, if possible, to resolve them 

 into one universal principle, which will serve as a general expression for 

 them all. 



Particular Physics, or Natural History (for both of these terms are used 

 indiscriminately), may [be extended so as to] include the particular appli- 

 cation of the laws, ascertained by the different branches of General Physics, 

 to the numerous and diversified created beings existing in nature, in order 

 to explain the phenomena which each exliibits. Wlien used in this e.x- 

 tensive signification, it also includes Astronomy; but this latter science, 

 being fully elucidated by the light of Mechanics alone, is entirely subser- 

 vient to its laws, and employs methods of investigation, too different from 

 those admitted by Natural History, to be [extensively] cultivated by the 

 same persons. It is usual, also, to include Meteorology among the 

 branches of General Physics, and to confine Natural History to oljjects 

 which do not admit of rigorous mathematical investigation, or precise 

 measurement in all their parts. 



Geology ranks next to Astronomy for the sublimity and depth of its investigations, 

 and ou*Tht, locicallv, to be classed with Natural Philosophy. But the science is based 

 upon so vast a mass of hist orical detail, and is still so much in its infancy, that it will 

 long continue to be arranged ^vith the branches of Particular Physics. It contrasts 

 with Astronomy in this respect, that while the last-mentioned science leads us to ex- 

 plore the infinity of space, Geology unfolds the secrets of the infinity of past time. 

 In the one, the present place of man is considered but as a point in the vast regions 

 of space; in the other, the present time but as an instant in the middle of two infuii- 

 ties — time past and time to come. 



Natural History properly considers only the inorganic bodies called 

 Minerals, and the various kinds of living beings [called Animals and Plants,] 

 almost all of which arc under the influence of laws, more or less uncon- 

 nected with those of motion, of chemical affinity, and of various others, 



* In this., and in similar passages, we have thought it more agreeable to received 

 usage to transpose the terms Mechanics and Dynamics from the position m which they 

 stnnd in the original, the former being, as we conceive, the more general term — 

 Translator, 



