26 MEMOIR OF 



The same system is recognized by Jewish 

 writers, of widely different times.* 



Now, though it be demurred, that this system 

 was derived from inspired direction, and, therefore, 

 ought not to be mentioned in an historical sketch 

 of Natural History, in which regard is supposed 

 to be had only to the results attained by the 

 unassisted faculties of man ; and though it be 

 objected, that it owed its origin to the require- 

 ments of a ceremonial religion, or to the design 

 of preserving the Jews distinct from every other 

 nation, and especially from the Egyptians, and 

 not impossibly, also, of serving, at the same 

 time, the farther purpose, not unworthy of divine 

 care, of a guide in the choice of viands most 

 favourable to health and virtue ; yet it must be 

 confessed worthy of more notice than has some- 

 times been paid to it, both as truly meriting the 

 name of a system, and as unquestionably being 

 the most ancient specimen of the kind now 

 known to be extant. 



Respecting one part of it, Michaelis, in his 

 Commentary on the Laws of Moses, observes, f 

 That in so early an age of the world we should 

 find a systematic division of quadrupeds so ex- 

 cellent as never yet, after all the improvements 

 in Natural History, to have become obsolete, 

 but, on the contrary, to be still considered as 



Genesis, vi. vii. viii. ix. ; Kings, iv. 33. ; Psalm 

 cxiviii. ; Acts, x. 32. 

 t Article CCIV. 



