RISE AND PROGRESS OF ZOOLOGY. 75 
telligible ; and what should have been the language 
of science, would, had the plan succeeded, have been 
turned into an unintelligible jargon, the words of 
which, if they could be so called, in many instances 
would have been almost unutterable. It was the 
object of Buffon to write an historical biography of 
every animal—while that of Linnzus was to ex- 
press its peculiar characters 'in as few words as pos- 
sible. It is quite clear that both these objects could 
be combined, for the one interferes not with the 
other; but the pride of Buffon would not permit 
him to show, by his writings, that he approved of 
any thing which came from Linnzus; and his dis- 
ciples, of course, followed his example. On the 
other hand, it must be admitted, that the dry and 
technical style of the Systema Nature (the in- 
evitable consequence of the condensing system 
Linnzus went upon) was exceedingly distasteful to 
all but professed naturalists. There are a thousand 
circumstances of popular interest in the economy of 
animals, which yet are not necessary to be touched 
upon in a bare descriptive catalogue of distinctions. 
It is the happy art of throwing these circumstances 
into a connected history, which gains popular ap- 
plause ; and although such narratives are not always 
the most valuable, they are unquestionably the most 
generally interesting. Nor are they devoid of 
interest even to the philosophic zoologist: on the 
contrary, the habits and instincts of an animal are 
as essential to determine its true relations to others, 
as are its external or internal structure: for as, in 
the moral world, we judge the character of a man, 
not from a single act, but by the tenor of his life, 
