THE 



EDINBURGH NEW 

 PHILOSOPHICAL JOURNAL. 



On the state of' Natural Histoi-y, and the progress zohich it has 

 made since the return of the Maritime Peace. By Baron 

 CrviER *. 



At the first origin of society, man was enjoined to make himself 

 acquainted with the objects of nature. Our sacred books repre- 

 sent, at their commencement, the Creator as making his works 

 pass under the eyes of the first of our race, and ordering him to 

 impose names upon them, — a happy allegory, which plainly 

 teaches us, that one of our first duties is to fill our minds with 

 the goodness and wisdom of the Author of Nature, by a con- 

 tinued study of the works of his power. This duty, like all 

 others, is in man an innate feeling ; and traces of it are to be 

 found in the opinion of nations at all the epochs of their history. 

 The Hebrews make its accomplishment enter into the merits 

 of the prince whom they present to us as the ideal of human 

 wisdom. That other ideal of every thing gi-eat, Alexander has 

 indissolubly connected his memory with that of Aristotle ; and 

 it is even from this concurrence of the most fortunate of wai'- 

 riors and the greatest of philosophers, that the history of our 

 .science begins. Similar coincidences have marked the epochs of 

 its most brilliant advances. The kings, of whom the history of 

 France speaks with most pride, St Louis, Francis I., Henry IV., 

 and Louis XIV., are precisely those who afforded it the most 

 " Eloges Historiques, t. iii. p. 450. 

 APRIf. JUNE 1829. A 



