MEMOIR OF ARISTOTLE. 



101 



tries, presented singular opportunities for gathering 

 cnaterials on Zoological history ; and accordingly, 

 Pliny informs us that some thousands of persons 

 Were employed for this purpose, both in Greece and 

 the East, and at an expense of 200,000. The 

 same author labours to describe with what ardour 

 and zeal that illustrious hero, during the course of 

 his expedition, collected and sent to his preceptor 

 whatever rarities were to be found in parks, or ponds, 

 or aviaries, or hives, or were to be procured by hunt- 

 ing, fishing, and fowling, throughout the wide ex- 

 tent of Asia*. Such were the resources which the 

 Stagirite had at his command for writing the His- 

 tory of Animals, besides the assistance of a volumi- 

 nous library, in which, no doubt, was treasured up 

 the knowledge of preceding naturalists. By com- 

 bining with the descriptions in his books the obser- 

 vations of those living wonders transported from the 



* The following is the original passage in Pliny in re- 

 ference to this subject i " Alexandro magno rege inflarn- 

 mato cupidine animalium naturas noscendi, delegataque 

 commentatione Aristoteli, summo in omni scientia viro, ali- 

 quot millia hominum in totius Asiae Grseciaeque tractu pa- 

 rere jussit, omnium quos venatus, aucupia, piscatusque ale- 

 bant, quibusque vivaria, armenta, alvearia, piscinae, avi- 

 aria, in cura erant ; ne quid usque in gentium ignoraretur 

 ab eo, quos percontando quinquaginta ferme voluminibus 

 ilia praeclara de animalibus condidit." Nat. Hist. lib. viii. 

 c. 17. The sum of 800 talents, which, according to Athe- 

 naeus, was granted by Alexander to his preceptor for the 

 improvement of science, maybe estimated at one-fifth part 

 of the annual expense of the army by which that prince 

 conquered Asia. 



