NOMENCLATURE AND CLASSIFICATION. 15 
CHAPTER II. 
NOMENCLATURE AND CLASSIFICATION. 
PROCEEDING upon the view that there is a close 
analogy between the way in which every individ- 
ual student penetrates into Nature and the pro- | 
gress of science as a whole in the history of hu- 
manity, I continue my sketch of the successive 
steps that have led to our present state of knowl- 
edge. I began with Aristotle, and showed that 
this great philosopher, though he prepared a. 
digest of all the knowledge belonging to his 
time, yet did not. feel the necessity of any sys- 
tem or of any scientific language differing from 
the common mode of expression of his day. He 
presents his information as a man with his eyes 
open narrates in a familiar style what he sees. 
As civilization spread and science had its repre- 
sentatives in other countries besides Greece, it 
became indispensable to have a common scien- 
tific language, a technical nomenclature, combin- 
ing many objects under common names, and 
enabling every naturalist to express the results 
of his observations readily and simply in a man- 
