Anniversary Address. 69 



predecessors, in a path which is so much to your own taste. 

 And wliat if we can trace them to the same Fountain Head^ 

 which we beheve to be the source of every science ? 



Whatever progress Europeans may have made in the cultiva- 

 tion of other arts and sciences, there was but little inquiry, either 

 among the Greeks or Romans, about plants, minerals, fossils, and 

 animals, before the middle of the fourth century before Christ. 



Pythagoras was an Asiatic, and his fii*st studies were in Egypt. 



Democritus obtained the name of the " laughing Philosopher,'* 

 because he turned to ridicule the absurd theories which prevailed 

 before his time ; and the genius of Empcdocles was rewarded, for 

 his attempt to correct some of the many errors of his day in 

 medicine and natural philosophy, by the fable of his suicide in 

 the crater of Mount iEtna. 



Aristotle was the son of a physician, and his early medical 

 studies first led him to the contemplation of animal and vegetable 

 structure. With such ardour did he pursue his investigations, 

 that he did not confine them to objects on the surface of the 

 globe, but he penetrated into the depths of the earth and sea, 

 to make himself acquainted with the secrets of nature. One of 

 his contemporaries had said, " Nature is concealed under a brazen 

 veil, which the united efforts of men and ages cannot lift up." 

 But Aristotle thought otherwise, and so determined was his re- 

 search, that to keep his mind on the alert, and his eyes open 

 when they were heavy, after a day's hard labour, he used to read 

 with a metal ball in his hand over a brazen vessel, that it might 

 fall and waken him if he fell asleep. 



In those days the labours of men of science were encouraged 

 by princes and public authorities, and Alexander the Great em- 

 ployed many persons — several thousands it is said — to collect 

 animals for Aristotle, from all parts of the world. Alexander not 

 only gave him money to assist him in the promotion of his im- 

 dcrtakings, but absolutely laid his commands on those in Europe 

 and Asia who lived by hunting, fishing, and bird-catching, that 

 they should supply Aristotle with all sorts of animals for his ex- 

 periments. No wonder then that he was able to adopt a plan 

 of classification and to give descriptions which have been so 

 useful to modern writers. His own personal experience, added 

 to the information which he gathered industriously from others, 

 gave him opportunities of methodizing his knowledge more ac- 



