ITS IMPORTANCE TO TRAVELLERS. 147 
(89.) We have now touched upon most of those 
subjects in which the study of nature may be brought 
to practical and beneficial purposes. Many of them 
may be thought trivial, and some remote; but 
there are others which involve questions concerning 
the prosperity of large communities, and the success 
of great commercial undertakings. No science, 
which can be applied to the solution of such ques- 
tions, can be deemed inapplicable to the every-day 
purposes of life; or unconnected with the wealth 
of nations or of individuals. There is, in fact, 
scarcely any branch of human knowledge but what 
may be applied, immediately or remotely —in one 
shape or another, —to the common benefit of man- 
kind ; and among these, natural history, both in its 
moral and practical application, must ever hold a 
distinguished place. 
(90.) To travellers in foreign countries, natural 
history is now become almost an essential qualifica- 
tion. Inthe infancy of the natural sciences, the pro- 
ductions of remote countries were either assimilated 
to our own, or magnified and distorted into the most 
marvellous wonders. The fabulous accounts of the 
natives were faithfully collected by the credulous tra- 
veller, and given to the world as facts attested by 
his own observation. Hence arose the absurdities 
recorded by Marco Polo, Ferdinand Mendez Pinto, 
and many of the earlier travellers, no less than the 
erroneous names assigned; in books of more modern 
date, to animals whose species never existed where 
they are asserted to live. But the advance of know- 
ledge, and a more attentive consideration of animal 
geography, has shown us that these accounts can no 
Eee 
fod 
