Iiojipeis, — who his English weeds pasted on royal paper, — who 

 Ids skin of a rattlesnake, and mummy of an Egyptian King, 

 besides other rarities enumerated, the names of which would. 

 hardly suit modern ears. 



This satire is perhaps still ajiijlicable to a few persons, who, 

 even at the present daj^, have a passion for collecting curiosities, 

 without a thought or purpose beyond getting together every 

 thing uncommon or odd-looking that comes within their reach. 

 But the mere virtuoso, in the department of Natural History, 

 is now comparatively of unfrequent occurrence. The scientific 

 naturalist has taken his place. Since the sciences have been 

 more generally cultivated, men's minds have become enlarged, 

 and they have felt a desire to know something more of nature's 

 ■\\-orks than is to be obtained by idly gazing upon a motley heap 

 of strange objects accumulated in the cabinets of the curious. 

 Hence the formation of Museums on strictly scientific principles. 

 By a display of the various productions of nature, arranged 

 according to their structure and aflSnities, or with a view to 

 some useful or educational purpose, they become valuable 

 accessories to our knowledge, while they tempt men of inquiring 

 minds to enter upon a study, having great advantages to 

 recommend it, which otherwise they might never have been led 

 to take up. 



The first person said to have " made any considerable collec- 

 tion of objects of Natural History in this country" was John 

 Tradescant, "by birth a Dutchman, who is supposed to have 

 come to England about the end of Queen Elizabeth's or the 

 beginning of James the First's reign.'" His Museum, Avhich 

 attracted much notice, and which was enriched by the donations 

 of various benefactors, we^rit % the name of Tradescant's Ark. 

 On his death, it was inherited by his son of the same name, 

 who seems to have taken as great interest in Natural History as 

 his father, and by whom the Museum was exhibited to the public 



