Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- PART I RISE AND PROGRESS OF ZOOLOGY
- PART II ON THE GENERAL NATURE AND ADVANTAGES OF THE STUDY OF NATURAL HISTORY
- PART III OF THE PRINCIPLES ON WHICH NATURAL HISTORY RELIES FOR ITS SUCCESSFUL PROSECUTION, AND THE CONSIDERATIONS BY WHICH THE NATURAL SYSTEM MAY DE DEVELOPED
- CHAP. I
- CHAP. II
- CHAP. III
- CHAP. IV
- CHAP. V
- CHAP. VI
- PART IV ON THE PRESENT STATE OF ZOOLOGICAL SCIENCE IN BRITAIN, AND ON THE MEANS BEST CALCULATED FOR ITS ENCOURAGEMENT AND EXTENSION
- APPENDIX
- INDEX
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- PART I RISE AND PROGRESS OF ZOOLOGY
- PART II ON THE GENERAL NATURE AND ADVANTAGES OF THE STUDY OF NATURAL HISTORY
- PART III OF THE PRINCIPLES ON WHICH NATURAL HISTORY RELIES FOR ITS SUCCESSFUL PROSECUTION, AND THE CONSIDERATIONS BY WHICH THE NATURAL SYSTEM MAY DE DEVELOPED
- CHAP. I
- CHAP. II
- CHAP. III
- CHAP. IV
- CHAP. V
- CHAP. VI
- PART IV ON THE PRESENT STATE OF ZOOLOGICAL SCIENCE IN BRITAIN, AND ON THE MEANS BEST CALCULATED FOR ITS ENCOURAGEMENT AND EXTENSION
- APPENDIX
- INDEX
Summary
(103.) There are two modes by which our knowledge of natural history can be successfully prosecuted. The first of these is to commence with investigating the forms and properties of species; combining them, according to their degrees of similarity, into groups or assemblages of different magnitudes; and then attempting to discover what general inferences can be drawn from such combinations, or, in other words, what are the principles by which their variations are regulated. This is the analytical method, by which we commence, as with an alphabet; and from letters determine words; from words proceeding to sentences; and, combining these, again, to chapters. By the second mode, we proceed quite differently. We begin by taking for granted the correctness of certain given principles, and apply them to the investigation and arrangement of some particular group. This is the synthetic mode. By the first, we commence as if all general laws were yet to be discovered; by the latter, as if they were already known, and only required a more particular or extended application.
(104.) As all true knowledge of the combinations of nature must originate in analysis, we shall first intimate how this can be most successfully prosecuted.
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- Information
- A Preliminary Discourse on the Study of Natural History , pp. 165 - 187Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2009First published in: 1834