Vill PREFACE. 
of such catalogues become, therefore, questions not altogether without interest. A 
descriptive catalogue in Natural History is nothing else than a list of species, accom- 
panied with such descriptions as may be judged sufficient to make these species 
known ; and it is evident that a number of various catalogues, having very different 
objects in view, may be drawn up to correspond with the terms of this definition. A 
catalogue, for instance, may be formed like that of Buffon, with an express contempt 
of technical nomenclature anda thorough disregard of system; the interest of the 
work depending wholly on that of the history of the individual species described, and 
the fecundity of imagination, or floridness of style with which their respective 
manners are developed. Such is, so far as concerns true science, the least profound, 
and therefore the most ancient sort of descriptive catalogue ; although indubitably it is 
in certain cases quite sufficient for the purpose of making known the animal intended to 
be described. ‘Thus, considering the horse merely as a domesticated animal, no scien- 
tific description can so eloquently, so admirably depict it as that of Buffon, and yet from 
such a description, we gain no notion whatever of the place which this noble creature 
holds in the great plan of creation. For all that we learn by it, there need scarcely be 
more than two insulated beings in the world, man and thehorse. ‘The consequence is, 
that such catalogues only suit for giving popular accounts of a few of such remarkable 
plants and vertebrated animals, as are directly connected with the habits of man. 
They seem to proceed, not only on the idea of all design, all order being absent in the 
creation as a whole, but also as if the infinitely greater part of organized forms need 
scarcely have been created. It would be absurd, even if it were possible, which it 
certainly is not, to adopt such a plan of catalogue for the description of insects or 
shells ; for the interest taken by the public in these ‘“ Animated Natures,” depends 
either on the number of anecdotes they contain, or upon our having already, in the usual 
course of life, acquired directly or indirectly some notion of the animals described, and 
therefore some curiosity to know more of their manners. Such a catalogue, therefore, 
is truly unscientific; but at the same time, and certainly for this reason it is the most 
popular of any. To understand it requires no previous acquaintance with Natural 
History ; and to read it, we are told, is all that is necessary for the common purposes 
of life. ‘True indeed it is, that a horse, a dog, a bee, any animal in fact which is 
already interesting to us from its immediately affecting the interests of man, may in 
this way be described, so that every characteristic trait, every particular of their man- 
ners shall be detailed: and yet it is easy to prove, that both tne reader and writer of 
such descriptions may remain utterly unacquainted with Natural History as a science. 
‘They know no more ot it, necessarily, than that person knows of astronomy who may 
have observed the change of seasons, or the difference in the length of days and 
nights. 
