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 Linnaeus 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 Linnaeus ; 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 Naturce (the in- 

 evitable consequence of the condensing system 

 Linnaeus 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, 



