90 DIFFERENCE BETWEEN ANCIENT 



showing the amount of that knowledge, but 

 also the methods employed in obtaining it and 

 in reasoning upon it. Comparing modern 

 science with ancient, as portrayed by these 

 authors, what strikes us more forcibly than the 

 silence on all instrumental helps and demon- 

 strated experiments ! Instruments the arms 

 of science, and more than the arms, even the 

 eyes, by which her great conquests have been 

 made, are of modern times, and how com- 

 paratively recent ! The ancients used only their 

 unaided senses, increasing the more our ad- 

 miration of what they accomplished. 



AMICUS. You mentioned the cuckoo and the 

 knowledge of its peculiarities, I presume, in 

 breeding, as an example of Aristotle's accuracy 

 of observation, and how for a time doubted, 

 confirmed by our illustrious countryman Jenner. 

 Pray, where is his account of the bird to be 

 found ? 



PISCATOK. You will find it in the Philo- 

 sophical Transactions for 1788. Do read it* 

 It is most curious and interesting in its details, 

 and an admirable example of the modern 

 method of inquiry compared with the ancient. 

 After reading it, yon will not feel surprised 



