NATURAL HISTORY. 



INTRODUCTION. 



As Man, upon any theory of his origin, cannot pro- 

 perly be said to have existed as Man, until he had 

 become possessed of that faculty of reason which con- 

 stitutes his title to the name of homo sapiens , it is not 

 altogether extravagant to say that the study of natural 

 history dates its first beginnings from the time of the 

 first appearance of man upon the earth. 



Primitive man, whatever may have been the develop- 

 ment of his reasoning powers, was assuredly very indiffer- 

 ently provided with the appliances of modern civilisation. 

 So far as concerns their mastery of the forces of external 

 nature, we may, without much risk of controversy, assume 

 that the early races of men were savages. It would there- 

 fore have been indeed strange if man, cast, to begin with, 

 amongst a vast series of living creatures, many of which 

 had the power of influencing his material condition for 

 good or for evil, should have shown himself insensible to 



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