THE CULTIVATION OF NATURAL KNOWLEDGE. 1 1 



truth; while every thinking member of society, who becomes 

 acquainted with this controversy, in all its bearings, will feel 

 himself deeply interested in its progress*. 



The sciences by which we are made acquainted with the 

 phenomena of organized existence, those of Botany and Zo- 

 ology, have also become objects of extensive interest and of 

 general importance. Public Institutions and Societies have 

 been founded to assist in the promulgation of them, and nu- 

 merous publications, on every scale of detail and illustration, 

 present their truths to the reception of the people at large. 

 To Zoology, or the natural history of animals, in particular, 

 the attention of the public in general in this country has 

 recently been strongly directed ; and the magnificent collec- 

 tion of animals of every class and every clime, in the Vivarium 

 (or Menagerie) and the Museum of the Zoological Society, 

 are still extending this attention and interest among all ranks 

 of the community. And it must not be forgotten, in adverting 

 to these facts, that this popular zeal for the cultivation of zoolo- 

 gical science, originated in the avidity with which the propo- 

 sition of the late Sir T. Stamford Raffles for the establishment 

 of a public institution for the advancement of Zoology, was 

 received by a small circle of naturalists, whose attention had 

 been strongly directed to the discoveries in the natural ar- 

 rangement of animals, announced, a few years before, by Mr. 

 W. S. Macleay ; a naturalist, to the importance and value of 

 whose purely scientific labours we shall again have occasion 

 to allude. The impetus was given by the zeal, the munifi- 

 cence, and the public spirit, of Sir Stamford Raffles ; but the 

 momentum which has brought the Zoological Society to its 

 present state of importance and utility, has been acquired from 

 the influence of Mr. Macleay's discoveries, on the kindred 

 minds of contemporary students of nature, with whatever li- 



* The opinion above expressed of the importance of the controversy in 

 geology, which has now first arisen in a truly definite and adequate form, 

 is not founded on the perusal of Mr. Lyell's work only. Every one who is 

 conversant with the progress of geology, both in this country and on the 

 Continent, for some years past, must be aware that the materials for a pro- 

 found and extensive controversy have been gradually and insensibly accu- 

 mulating ; especially in the inquiries concerning the origin and history of the 

 crystalline rocks ; the respective geological limits of the transition, secon- 



formation of valleys and water-courses ; &c. &c. Mr. Lyell's publicatior 

 has been the means of bringing this controversy fully before the public ; 

 but at the same time, with the exception of what its author may have 

 derived from the Pythagorean system, as expounded by himself, and of what 

 he has avowedly adopted from Dr. Hutton and others, that most interesting 

 work must be regarded as perfectly original. 



