146 DOCTOR ENT'S EPISTLE DEDICATORY. 



fertile in enjoyment, inasmuch as each particular point exa- 

 mined often leads to others which had not before been sur- 

 mised. You yourself, I well remember, informed me once that 

 you had never dissected any animal and many and many a 

 one have you examined, but that you discovered something un- 

 expected, something of which you were formerly uninformed." 

 " It is true," said he : " the examination of the bodies of 

 animals has always been my delight ; and I have thought that 

 we might thence not only obtain an insight into the lighter 

 mysteries of nature, but there perceive a kind of image or re- 

 flex of the omnipotent Creator himself. And though much has 

 already been made out by the learned men of former times, I 

 have still thought that much more remained behind, hidden by 

 the dusky night of nature, uninterrogated ; so that I have 

 oftentimes wondered and even laughed at those who have fan- 

 cied that everything had been so consummately and absolutely 

 investigated by an Aristotle or a Galen, or some other mighty 

 name, that nothing could by possibility be added to their 

 knowledge. Nature, however, is the best and most faithful in- 

 terpreter of her own secrets ; and what she presents either more 

 briefly or obscurely in one department, that she explains more 

 fully and clearly in another. No one indeed has ever rightly 

 ascertained the use or function of a part who has not examined 

 its structure, situation, connexions by means of vessels, and 

 other accidents, in various animals, and carefully weighed and 

 considered all he has seen. The ancients, our authorities in 

 science, even as their knowledge of geography was limited by 

 the boundaries of Greece, so neither did their knowledge of 

 animals, vegetables, and other natural objects extend beyond 

 the confines of their country. But to us the whole earth lies 

 open, and the zeal of our travellers has made us familiar not 

 only with other countries and the manners and customs of their 

 inhabitants, but also with the animals, vegetables, and mine- 

 rals that are met with in each. And truly there is no nation 



