1 70 Review. 



fable in natural history which has not arisen, very natu- 

 rally I was going to say, out of some obvious and well 

 authenticated fact. The beautiful fable of the Phoenix 

 may have taken its rise from the history of the periodi- 

 cal returns of a comet, and the theory of the learned 

 of Egypt, or some other region, concerning the nature 

 of these bodies. — The fable of Herrera is supported by 

 the fact, that the Trochilus, like many other birds, is 

 susceptible of, and actually does sometimes pass into, 

 the torpid state : a state, in many animals, extremely 

 similar to that of complete death : for who, but the 

 most keen-eyed physiologist, can mark, in many in- 

 stances at least, the line between life merely interrupted, 

 and Yikjinis/ied, or at an end ? 



" With such difficulties in the investigations of natu- 

 ral history, surrounded by truths which pass, by the 

 slightest and most imperceptible shades, into fables, it 

 should be the constant aim of the naturalist to describe 

 and paint nature as she is. The addition of one solitary 

 tint, whether added by the suggestion of fancy or urged 

 by credulity, may render the picture unworthy of atten- 

 tion, ' Historia Natural is (I use the words of a 

 very respectable naturalist, who is treating of the history 

 of an animal, concerning which the most extravagant 

 fables had been related), ' Historia Naturalis non bene 

 digesta abit in Fabulam ; praejtidicia vero et nimia 

 Credulitas Veritatem, etsi cominus satis cognitam, lon- 

 gissime aliquando propellunt*.' 



* u Jacobus Theodorus Klein. See bis curious account of the Mus 

 Alpinus, or Marmot, in the Philosophical Transactions, Numb. 486, 

 p. 180, &c, for the year 1748. 



