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ON THE STUDY OF NATURAL HISTORY. NATURAL history is one of the most pleasing studies in which man can engage; for the objects it brings under review are so infinitely diversified, yet all so admirably adapted for the purpose they were intended for in the universe, as to afford a perpetual source of wonder and admiration to those who nearly contemplate them.

To the student this branch of science naturally divides itself into two branches, viz. that which regards the clafsification and nomenclature, and that which has a respect to the propagation, increase, qualities, and habitudes of the different objects of investigation. This first ought naturally to precede the other; for without a knowledge in that department, all advances in the other that might be made by individuals would be vain and nugatory, because it would be impofsible for others, to ascertain what were the particular bodies to which the attributes specified did belong. The ancients, regardless in some measure of this circumstance, having applied themselves with much afsiduity to the second department, ascertained the qualities of many objects, but the knowledge they thus acquired is to us almost useless, because we cannot ascertain with certainty the objects of their investigation. The moderns in this respect have acted more wisely; for by beginning with the classification of all ob jects, and by describing them in such a way as that no one can ever be confounded with an other, they lay the sure foundation of a science which in time may become an object of immense importance; seeing if ever any one quality of at particular object be accurately ascertained, the knowledge of that single quality may be preserved for ages, tilk others respecting the same object may be added to it; so

that by continual additions of this kind, it will come to be completely known at the last. Those therefore who busy themselves in the clafsification of objects, are engaged in a most useful nployment, as they are constructing a scaffolding by means of which may be reared a stately fabric if infinite magnitude and utility, without which scaffolding it never could have existed.

Still however it ought ever to be adverted to that the classification of objects, though it be an indispensable initiatory step in the science of natural history, in the same manner as learning the letters of the alphabet is an indispensable step in the progrefs of every branch of learning; yet if it be considered merely in itself, without having a reference to the uses to which it may be applied in the farther study of nature, it would lose much of that respectability to which it otherwise may justly lay claim; and as in the present age many persons seem to prosecute the science of classification alone, with a degree of keenness and ardour which would make one believe that they considered this as the ultimate object they aimed at in the science of natural history, it is no great wonder that some cynical snarlers fhould sneer at these fhort sighted naturalist, and represent them as pluming themselves upon the attainment of uselefs and trifling acquirements. The wise man, while he considered the first as taking too narrow a view of the science of nature, would blame the last as condemning that as utterly useless, which though of little utility to the pofsefsor, might be of great use to some others who fhould afterwards avail themselves of his labours. He would compare it to the indiscriminate collections made by a man of fortune, who knew not to what uses might be applied the materials he had heaped together, but who by subjecting them to the inspection

of men of genius, might enable them to make many dis coveries, which without his intervention they never could have done. These are therefore to be considered as useful labourers in the field of nature, and although they never can aspire to the honour of attaining a place in the superior mansions of that sublime edifice, yet if they can please themselves by taking up their abode at the threshold, why fhould their happiness be there disturbed?

It is no difficult task to account for the predilection fhown in modern times to the science of nomenclature above the other branch of natural history. In the first the labours of the ingenious Swede have so much simplified this business as to render it attainable without much trouble to any one who fhall apply to it. The arrangements he has made too, are in many respects so beautiful as to prove highly pleasing to the youthful imagination, and the attention is kept so continually awake by a gentle exertion, without any painful effort, as to excite a sensation somewhat of the same attractive sort with that of the billiard or the card table; add to this, that the person who has made any considerable progress in this art, has such frequent opportunities of discovering the superiority which this kind of knowledge gives him above others, without being reduced to the necefsity of going out of his way to seek for opportunities of displaying it, and we will not be surprised at the eagernerness with which men fhould attach themselves to this branch of science; for what can be more attractive than a study which requires no further exertion of mind, than serve to amuse, and at the same time so powerfully flatters the vanity of

man.

Much the reverse of this is the study of that department of natur history, which goes to ascertain the

qualities and habitudes of the different objects; those especially of animated nature; for in that department, many of the objects come so seldom within our reach, that they in a great measure elude our observation; and when they do come sometimes under our view, it requires such a painful attention to minute particulars, before facts can be fairly authenticated, that the inquiry becomes tiresome, and is soon abandoned for others of a more lightsome and engaging sort. Hence, it happens, that instead of engaging in this pursuit themselves, or weighing the facts with care that others have asserted, writers on natural history in general, content themselves with copying what has been said by others; so that if any one person has been able to frame a plausible tale, though perhaps it be in a great measure destitute of foundation, yet, if the object be not immediately under our eye, that tale fhall be so often narrated as a truth by respectable writers on all sides, that it comes to be universally believed; and the person who fhall but whisper a doubt of that system, will be reprobated as an impudent innovator; his reasons for doubting be treated with contempt; and himself be viewed with obloquy by all the writers who have copied admirers of these writer. has a man thus to fear? pose himself to obloquy? and his family perhaps to ruin in defence of truth, which it is every body's business as much as his own to defend. Si populus vult decipi decipeatur, he will say, and will let the world go on without interrupting their devious career.

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In these circumstances we can only expect that a very few men will engage in a study that is attended with great difficulty, perplexity, and doubt, and which neither

is productive of honour nor of emolument. Linnæus, Pallas, and a few other writers of established character, have discovered surprising talents for investigating facts respecting the economical history of such objects as have fallen under their immediate inspection; but few are the ob jects which they could have opportunities of investigating, themselves, and in most cases they have been obliged to build open facts collected from others, many of which must no doubt be of a suspecious nature. As to Buffon, his imagination was always at hand to afsist him in rear, ing up a beautiful fabric from the most flimsy materials, and thus to propagate error through the wide extent of an admiring universe.

For these reasons it may be said that the real science of natural history has hardly had a beginning *. Even the animals which are reared by ourselves, and under the observation of every person in Europe every day of their lives, have few of their real qualities actually ascertained by naturalists+. Dr Pallas in the natural history of the fheep, published in this work, has discovered a laudable attention to the subject under a variety of points of view; but the ascertaining with accuracy so many facts as re

* Unless it be among anecdotes of hunting and fishing, which may be picked up by a careful observation of the practice of various nations, the most savage as well as the most civilized, all of which are founded on an accurate observation of the natural habitudes of the respective animals to which they refer, I scarcely know another uncontaminated source of information to which the naturalist can apply on this subject.

It is a well known fact that Buffon published many (thirteen I think) edition's of his works, in all of which he described the com. mon ox as shedding his horns annually like the deer; and this error, absurd as it was, has been copied by several others from him,

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