290 Natural- Historical Collections. 



that the words would never change ; and he contents himself, in general, with 

 merely naming the species. The only descriptions, properly so called, which he 

 has given, are of the elephant, the camel, the crocodile, and the cameleon. Some 

 other animals, it is true, are indicated by characteristic traits, and could not be 

 mistaken ; but more frequently we are reduced to conjectures founded on some 

 circumstances in the history of the animal, or upon properties which the author 

 assigns to it ; we collect the different passages which relate to it ; we compare 

 them with each other, and with those which we find in contemporary authors ; 

 we even connect with them statements borrowed from authors of a posterior date ; 

 but, in this latter case, much circumspection is required, since the signification 

 of words is liable to vary with the times. We may observe, indeed, that the 

 names were changed between the time of Aristotle and that of the Athenffium, 

 and much more have they been changed till our time. However, the zoological 

 nomenclature of the modern Greeks may often be made serviceable in discover- 

 ing the animals of the ancients. 



Scaliger has given a good edition of the History of Animals ; but the best of 

 all is that published, in 1811, by M. Schneider. The translation of Theodore 

 Gaza is often quoted, but it is very inexact. This translator was a Greek who 

 went to Italy after the taking of Constantinople by the Turks ; he had a bad 

 knowledge of Latin, so that every time he found in Pliny a passage borrowed 

 from Aristotle, he transcribed it literally. It appears that he had but a bad copy 

 of the Greek text. 



There is a French translation by M. Camus ; the text is nearly that of Scali- 

 ger, The translation is as good as one could expect from a man who was not a 

 naturalist ; but the volume of notes which is subjoined only obscures the sub- 

 ject. 



The other books of Aristotle relative to natural history are much less clear than 

 that of which we have been speaking. They are more mingled with discussions 

 on technical terms ; the Greek tongue is adapted to this sort of debate, — an in- 

 convenience which is common to all languages which are faithful to etymology. 

 Every word, indeed, offering, as it were, an abbreviated definition of the thing, 

 necessarily carries with it the impress of those false notions which were entertain- 

 ed when it was formed. Thence comes the necessity of defining every term ; 

 thus we see Greek writers explain, distinguish, and subdivide their words ad in- 

 Jinitum. They pushed the thing to an extreme ; and Aristotle himself, as we 

 have remarked, falls sometimes into this error. However, those of his works 

 which have this reproach, appear to have been much anterior to his History of 

 Animals, and were probably only a sort of preparatory exercise. This applies 

 particularly to the wonderful facts, which are nothing but a collection of notes 

 disposed without order, but which possess much interest from containing differ- 

 ent extracts from lost works. There is a good edition of it by Beckmann. 



A book upon plants has been attributed to Aristotle ; but it appears that this 

 work is apocryphal. 



Lecture VIII — Most of the great conquests of which history speaks, have 

 been wrought by the arms of demi-savage hordes, who, precipitating themselves 

 upon civilized nations, have brought ignorance and barbarism in their train. The 

 expedition of the Greeks under Alexander has an entirely different character : 

 in it we see a people, already far advanced in civilization, enlightening every place 

 to which they penetrate, and at the same time causing a reflux to their own country 

 of every thing which others offer of the beautiful or useful. It was indeed during 

 the progress of this conquest that Greece was enriched with many new animals,— 

 that it received elephants, which were shortly used in the armies of many of the 

 princes of the west,— peacocks, whose brilliant plumage excited so much admi- 

 ration, that they were first exhibited for gain, — and, lastly, parrots, of which the 

 species then brought to Greece still preserves, amongst naturalists, a name which 

 refers to the period of its introduction : it is the psiltacus Alexandri, the green 

 parroquet, with the pointed tail and scarlet collar. 



