METHODS OF STUDY IN NATURAL 
HISTORY. 
CHAPTER I. 
GENERAL SKETCH OF THE EARLY PROGRESS IN 
NATURAL HISTORY. 
Ir is my intention, in this series of papers, to 
give the history of the progress in Natural His- 
tory from the beginning,—to show how men 
first approached Nature, — how the facts of Nat- 
ural History have been accumulated, and how 
these facts have been converted into science. In 
so doing, I shall present the methods followed 
in Natural History on a wider scale and with 
broader generalizations than if I limited myself 
to the study as it exists to-day. The history of 
humanity, in its efforts to understand the Crea- 
tion, resembles the development of any individ- 
ual mind engaged in the same direction. It 
has its infancy, with the first recognition of 
surrounding objects; and, indeed, the early ob- 
servers seem to us like children in their first at- 
tempts to understand the world in which they 
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