Dr. Smirn’s Iniroduftory Difcourfe. 5 
the hiftory of the human mind, of theory, like an ignis fatuus, 
having led men aftray, and made them pay dear for a little real in- 
ftruétion, by bewildering them in endlefs errors and abfurdities. 
And fo hard is it to overcome prejudices, fanétified in a manner by 
antiquity, that this idea of a connexion between ftars and plants, is 
only juft got rid of in the moft enlightened parts of the world. 
But to coníole ourfelves under the contemplation of fuch humili- 
ating inftances of human weaknefs, let us turn our attention to the 
father of philofophy, at leaft of our philofophy, rifing fo fuperior to 
the darknefs in which he lived, darting his penetrating glance 
through all nature, and eftablifhing principles which along courfe of 
ages of enquiry have but confirmed. - With Ariftotle begins the real 
hiftory of fcience; and how much foever he may have erred on 
particular pointieéliestent tnefs of his conceptions and the juftnefs 
of his ideas on the w hole, entitle him to our high veneration, and 
we fhould correét his miftakes with awe. His labours in the in- 
veftigation of the animal kingdom have laid the foundation of the 
knowledge we now poffefs, and it cannot fufficiently be regretted 
that we have only an imperfe& account of his difcoveries.—Theo- 
phraftus, the worthy difciple of Ariftotle, has given us the firft 
{cientific views of the vegetable and mineral-kingdoms. His works 
are indeed fhort and imperfect fketches, but they are by the hand 
of a mafter. Thefe two great men ftand unrivalled as the only 
philofophical naturalifts of antiquity of whom we have any fatif- 
factory knowledge. 
Several ages afterwards came Pliny, that laborious compiler, 
whofe mind, too much occupied by a variety of purfuits, could pro- 
perly cultivate none. He has tranfmitted to us, as far as he was 
able, all that was known of Natural Hiftory, or rather all that had 
been imagined, at the time in which he lived. Whether Diofcorides 
lived 
