GO Baron Cuvier's Lectures on the Natural Sciences. 



surd in itself, and can only seem so to persons who take in the 

 literal sense a figurative expression, an expression perfectly si- 

 milar to twenty others which we employ without scruple, be- 

 cause language does not furnish us with any that are perfectly 

 rigorous. 



Aristotle made a much happier apphcation of his method to 

 the study of hving beings. His History of Animals in parti- 

 cular, is a true master-piece. 



Lecture Eighth. — Aristotle's History of Animals. 



The History of Animals is a very remarkable performance. 

 On reading this treatise, one can hardly comprehend how the 

 author could have found in his own observations so many gene- 

 ral rules, so many perfectly accurate aphorisms, of which his 

 predecessors had not the slightest idea. This book is not, pro- 

 perly speaking, a treatise on zoology : it is a genei-al work on 

 that department of natural science, similar to what the Philo- 

 sophia Botanica of Linnaeus is in another department. 



The first book treats of the parts which compose the body of 

 animals, describing them not by species, but by natural groups, 

 and making known what belongs to each group. An Assay of 

 this kind could not have been written without the author 

 having had very precise ideas respecting the classification of 

 animals. However, as he did not judge it necessary to trace a 

 zoological system, some persons have alleged that the book is 

 deficient in method. Such a reproach manifests a very superfi- 

 cial mind in those who offer it. 



The commencement of this first book is in a manner detached 

 from the rest, and is intended to serve as an introduction. A 

 great part of it consists of general propositions offered without 

 details, but in a manner sufficiently clear to enable any one to 

 comprehend it, and make application of it to the natural objects 

 which he knows. The object of the author was evidently to fix 

 tlie attention, by thus bringing together within a small space a 

 great number of remarkable results, and to give beforehand an 

 idea of the interest which must be found in the study of nature. 

 Most of these aphorisms suppose the observation of an immense 

 number of particular facts, as may be judged of from those 

 wliich we proceed to quote. 



All animals, without exception, are furnished with a mouth 



