PREFACE 



The old naturalists have occupied so much of my leisure 

 of late years that it becomes a pleasant task to write 

 about them. My chief aim is to induce such readers as 

 I may find to make themselves better acquainted with 

 the founders of modern natural history. To succeed in 

 this attempt a rather strict selection of authors is indis- 

 pensable, and I have been forced to omit many of those 

 workers at details to whom natural history owes so much, 

 in order to give fair space to the pioneers who opened 

 out new fields of inquiry or introduced new methods. 

 I cannot pretend, however, to have been altogether con- 

 sistent and impartial in my selection. Some old works 

 have been included, not so much because they are 

 important as because they give a lively picture of the 

 state of knowledge in a past age. Insects take up more 

 than their due share of space, partly because they are 

 really prominent in the works of early naturalists, partly 

 because old books about insects give me more than com- 

 mon pleasure. Such preferences are natural, and if not 

 pushed too far, may be advantageous to the reader as 

 well as to the author. No more fatal mistake can be 

 committed by an author who undertakes to handle a 

 wide subject than to fancy that he can attain to com- 

 pleteness unless indeed his work takes the form of an 

 index ; and it is almost as unpromising to divide the 



