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CHAPTER VI. 
GENERAL PRINCIPLES OF SCIENTIFIC ARRANGEMENT. 
The following rapid observations are addressed to those 
whom it is the desire that this series of volumes may in¬ 
duce to take up the study of Nature in a methodical 
manner. With this view, the merest summary of the 
principles upon which scientific arrangement is based, is 
here exhibited. The study requires method as a lode¬ 
star to guide through its intricacies, but it is one which, 
pursued simply as a recreation, yields both much amuse¬ 
ment and gratifying instruction. It shows us that when 
we unclasp the book of nature, and wherever we may 
turn its leaves, every word, the syllables of which we 
strive to spell, is pregnant with the fruitfulness of won¬ 
derful wisdom, whose profound expression the human 
intellect is too limited thoroughly to comprehend. 
Is there an arrangement that human skill could 
mend? Is there an organization that man can fully 
solve, or a combination that his mind can wholly com- 
pass? Do we not behold limitless perfection every¬ 
where, but all so deeply mysterious. So exquisite are 
the feelings which the contemplation commands, that 
they imbue us deeply with the sense of the high privilege 
conferred upon the intellect by its being permitted to 
embrace a study, which, even pursued merely as a re- 
