174 DEFINITIONS. 



this definition that no study can be more extensive, since 

 it may in some measure be said to include every other. 



3. When the attention is more particularly directed to 

 the properties of time and space, and to the laws of matter, 

 the branch of Natural Science so studied has in our lan- 

 guage been called Natural Philosophy;, or Physics. 



4. On the other hand Natural History in the widest 

 sense of the term has been the name applied to that study 

 which more particularly embraces the properties of matter. 

 It deserves notice, however, that there is a great difficulty 

 in separating distinctly these two branches of Natural 

 Science, as in fact the properties of matter are nothing but 

 the necessary consequences of the general laws by which 

 the universe is governed, where these are specially and 

 particularly applied towards the formation of the various 

 beings which exist in nature. And it is on this account 

 that it is hard to say whether Chemistry and those sci- 

 ences which are called physical ought not all to be consi- 

 dered as the true province of Natural History. For though 

 it has been attempted to define Dynamics as a science 

 of calculation, Chemistry as a science of experiment, and 

 Natural History as one of observation, it is unfortunate 

 for the seeming simplicity of these terms, that all the three 

 sciences depend more or less on observation, and re- 

 late in some degree to the properties of matter. Indeed 

 in the cases of Chemistry and Natural History, it ap- 

 pears absolutely requisite, before we can admit them to 

 be distinct sciences, that we should know experience and 

 observation to be incompatible with each other. 



It is nevertheless true that Natural History, properly so 



