13G 



>riKl«:tl ^riidtn. 



XV. — On the Desirability of an English Translation op 

 Aristotle's History op Animals : by Eev. W. Houghton, 



MA., r.L.s. 



•! 



Op all the great intellectual luminaries that have enlightened the 

 different departments of human learning, it would be difficult if not 

 impossible to name one that can justly claim to rival Aristotle in the 

 extent and depth and philosopMc value of his writings. The Zoo- 

 logist may well feel a degree of pride when he remembers that this 

 great man was the founder of his science ; for it is to Aristotle that 

 he is indebted for the birth of Zoology ; it is he who fii-st attempted 

 to reduce to a system the various and diversified forms of animal 

 life which even the limited geogra]ihical knowledge of the ancients 

 served to make them acquainted mth. Truly one stands aghast when 

 one contemplates over hov/ wide a field of human thought the vast 

 mind of Aristotle wandered, and how ably and comprehensively each 

 subject is treated. The modern zoologist, knowing well how exten- 

 sive an area his own particular science occupies, devotes his 

 time and study to acquire, as perfectly as he is able, a general 

 knowledge of the laws of the animal kingdom, and afterwards is fain 

 content for the most part to confine himself mthin some circum- 

 scribed bomidary, and to give his attention towards the full and exact 

 elucidation of some particular group; but when we think of Aristotle's 

 labours, whether in the field of Natural Science or in that of Dialec- 

 tics and Logic, we can only wonder and admire, but cannot attemjit 

 to imitate. " Had this extraordinary man," Swainson* well observes, 

 " left us no other memorial of his talents than his researches in Zoo- 

 " logy, he would still be looked upon as one of the greatest philoso- 

 " pliers of ancient Greece, even in its highest and brightest age. But 

 ^' when it is considered that his eloquence and his depth of thought 

 " gave laws to orators and poets, that he was almost equally great 

 " in moral as in physical science, we might almost be tempted to 

 " think that the powers of the human mind had retrograded, and that 

 *' originality of thought and philosophic combination existed in a far 

 *' higher degree among the heathen philosophers than in those Avho 

 " followed them." 



But though all the encomiums that have been passed upon Aris- 

 totle, from the time of Cicero to our own day, are justly due, when 

 we reflect on the time in which the philosopher lived, when Science 

 was unaided by the modern mechanical appliances which the ingenuity 

 and skill of man has planned and executed, we must not be led into 



• Dhcourse on the Study of Natural History, p. 6. 



