compared with the Discoveries of the Modern Sciences. 263 
gous to those which naturalists employ in the study of the 
different natural bodies. In the 11th chapter of Leviticus, in 
particular, we find a sketch of a method of distinguishing 
pure animals from impure, the latter of which the Hebrews 
were forbidden to eat. God allowed the children of Israel 
to eat animals which ruminated and had the feet cloven ; but 
they were interdicted from using others. Swine, and even 
camels, were included in the interdict; the former because 
they did not ruminate, the latter because they had not their 
feet divided like oxen and sheep. 
Birds of prey were also, according to Scripture, impure 
animals, which the Hebrews were not permitted to use 
for food. They were allowed to make use only of long 
legged species (Gralle, Linn.), and those whose feet were 
adapted for swimming. They might employ for food all the 
marine and fresh-water fishes provided with scales and fins ; 
but they were not to eat such as were destitute of these ap- 
pendages. In this ordination there can be no doubt that a 
great degree of wisdom is shewn; for the animals we now 
use for food belong to pure species ; while, with the excep- 
tion of the hog, those which Moses regards as impure are, in 
general, ill-fitted for human consumption. But what is most 
important to be remarked is, that in this arrangement there 
can be traced the basis of a natural classification, which is 
still adopted in the most common systems. 
Scripture is not less precise when it turns its attention to 
the objects of detail relating to living beings. It is, in par- 
ticular, in delineating the manners of animals, that these 
writings exhibit an accuracy and conciseness which the 
greatest naturalists have not surpassed. Its descriptions are — 
so faithful and so precise, that they cannot be mistaken. 
Thus it represents to us the lioness couched in her cave, 
watching with a restless eye the prey about to pass, and 
waiting with the utmost anxiety on her young whelps. When 
she perceives the prey, we are told how she darts forth with 
the rapidity of the eagle, carrying her victim in her mouth to 
appease the hunger of her young ones. Very different from 
the young lions, the young ravens wander about from one 
place to another, oppressed by hunger; they call with loud 
