52 MEMOIR OF 



We have thus seen, then, that Aldrovandi, born 

 and reared in affluence, possessed of superior abili- 

 ties, and with the avenues of professional indepen- 

 dence before him, was induced, by the bent of his 

 genius, to desert the path of worldly gain, and to 

 dedicate the whole of his fortune, and of his life, to 

 the advancement of a favourite and ennobling study. 

 His means were ere long exhausted, and though it 

 was an element in his calculation, that the profits 

 of one publication would enable him to put forth 

 another, yet in this he proved to be so much mis- 

 taken, that he was actually reduced to pecuniary 

 straits and difficulties. He could not, accordingly, 

 proceed with the publication of his own works ; nor 

 is this to be wondered at, when we consider their 

 extent. They are really as ponderous as our great 

 modern Encyclopaedias. But although he could 

 not bring them before public notice, others, embued 

 with that spirit which he had infused, were both 

 willing and able to do so ; and they completed their 

 master's design with a zeal that does honour at once 

 to their friendship and their love for science. 



It will not be forgotten that the reading popula- 

 tion on Natural History, as on other subjects, was 

 very different in the sixteenth century from what it 

 is in the nineteenth. Hence the real importance of 

 patronage then ; and without its help much could 

 not have been effected, which was actually accom- 

 plished. But we may hear our venerable Professor 

 himself. " As water to a tree, so is patronage to 

 works of merit. Thus Pliny was indebted to the 



