tl2 Natural History, 



plying the wants, and obtaining the luxuries of 

 life. Solomon, the king of Israel, we are told, 

 spake of trees, from the cedar tree that is in Leba^ 

 non, even unto the hyssop that springeth out of the 

 wall: — he spake, also, of beasts, and of birds, and 

 of creeping thijigs, and offshes° And, if we may 

 judge from the respectful terms in which such 

 studies are mentioned, in this and in various 

 other passages of sacred scripture, we may con- 

 clude they were held in high estimation in very 

 early times. It was not, however, until long after 

 the revival of letters and science in Europe, that 

 natural history began to receive the attention due 

 to its importance. Toward the close of the se- 

 venteenth century, after several learned societies 

 in Great-Britain, and on the continent, had been 

 formed, the taste for this branch of study com- 

 menced, and has been ever since gradually ex- 

 tending itself over the civilized world. 



At an early period of the eighteenth century, 

 many persons were busily employed in collecting 

 and publisliing facts in Natural History, especially 

 in Zoologi/ and Botany. But though these in- 

 quirers rendered important service to this depart- 

 ment of philosophy, it was rather by communi- 

 cating a knowledge of details, than by enlight- 

 ened and correct philosophizing on the subjects 

 which came before them. Scarcely any thing had 

 been effected, on a great scale, previous to the 

 appearance of Ltnn.^^us, an illustrious Swede, who, 

 by his first publications, in 1735, gave a new 

 aspect to the whole science, and commenced what 

 has been with much justice styled the '' golden 

 age'* of Natural History. — Almost every thing 

 that had been done in the great business of Clas* 

 sijication, before his time, was confused, and ex- 



» I Klngi iv. %%% 



