0 STUDY OF NATURAL HISTORY. 
intimations in ancient history, whether sacred or 
profane, must not be interpreted too literally, or be 
supposed to imply more than that the knowledge of 
natural history, possessed by the early inhabitants of 
the earth, was commensurate with what was known 
of astronomy or other of the physical sciences. 
_(6.) Passing over, therefore, those obscure ages, 
when all human learning was in its infancy, we may 
date the rise of zoology, as a study, from the time 
when the immortal Aristotle directed the powers 
of his mind to the animal world; and in his famous 
book, Tlep Zoév ‘Ioropias, first sought to define, by 
the precision of language, those more prominent and’ 
comprehensive groups of the animal kingdom, which, 
being founded on nature, are exempt from the in- 
fluence of time and the mutability of learning. Had 
this extraordinary man left us no other memorial of — 
his talents than his researches in zoology, he would 
still be looked upon as one of the greatest philo- 
sophers 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, and that no 
department of human learning escaped his research, 
or was left unilluminated by his genius, —we might 
be almost tempted to think that the powers of the 
human mind, in these latter days, had retrograded ; 
and that originality of thought, and of philosophic 
combination, existed in a far higher degree among 
the heathen philosophers than in those who followed 
them. A moment’s reflection, however, will show 
