Excerpt from The Cabinet of Arts, or General Instructor in Arts, Science, Trade, Practical Machinery, the Means of Preserving Human Life, and Political Economy, Embracing a Variety of Important Subjects When we consider the immense variety of objects which themselves to the eye, it must appear, at first sight, to aim even a general knowledge 0 their qualifies and th'eciongest life, w1th the most vigorous mind, and the most persevering industry, would be wholly unequal to the task of examining even the individual objects of all kinds with which a single man is surrounded; Hence it arises that, by a natural law of the human mind, we arealwsys attan toammge theobjects cfourin uiries into certain classes, ammgtocertaincommon ropertiesw'ch the seemtopossess. These are divided into other with sdditimalymlrks of distinc tion; and these are subdivided into other sets, putil we at last come down to the in 'vidual object. By dais prawn the mind is assisted in its inquiries, and the comrhunicstion pf hmwlcdge is rendered my and useful. The study of all the objects of our senses may he divided into two branches, namely, N alum! H irlovy, and Natural Philosophy. The first of these branches is occupied in arr objects, and describing them in such a way that they may be easily accurately distinguished fi'o one another. It may be considered as a descriptive viet'themstsrialwm-ld, in astuteofrestorinactivity, withouttaking intosccountthe motionsoractionsof bodiesuponone mother. Thisisthefirst intheprogressofknofledgqandi't constitutes Natural Hictovy. Ut the operations of nature are seldom street: changemccesdschange; new combimtionsofobjectsare formed, and new productions make their appearance. The primary planet: revolve round the sun as their centre; the mdary planets or moons perform similar revolutions round their primaries. The air q! A2 natssal Pmtosornr. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.