OF COMPARATIVE ANATOMY. 15 



bours, in tlie short but expressive phrase of Christian dogs ; 

 and the Emperor of China accepting presents from tlie 

 King of England, because it is a principle of the celestial 

 empire to shew indulgence and condescension towards petty 

 states. 



Science requires an expanded mind, a view that embraces 

 the universe. Instead of shutting himself up in an island, 

 and abusing all the rest of mankind, the philosopher should 

 make the world his country, and should trample beneath 

 his feet those prejudices which the vulgar so fondly hug to 

 their bosoms. He should sweep away from his mind the 

 dust and cobwebs of national partiality and enmity, which 

 darken and distort the perceptions, and fetter the operations 

 of intellect. If the love of science and liberal views are not 

 sufficient to repress the noisy obtrusion of national claims, 

 considerations of policy may furnish the motive. The 

 country which has really done the most for science will cer- 

 tainly be the last to assert its pretensions ; and a readiness 

 to allow the merits of others will be the most powerful 

 means, next to modesty and diffidence, of recommending 

 oiu' own to attention. If wc could come to the strange re- 

 solution of attending only to what has been done by Eng- 

 lishmen in comparative anatomy and zoology, we should have 

 to go back in the science fifty years or more ; in short, to a 

 state of comparative darkness ; for such it must be deemed, 

 if we excluded the strong light which has been thrown on 

 these subjects from Italy, Germany, and France. 



The only parallel to such a proceeding is that afforded by 

 the Caliph Omar, in his sentence on the Alexandrian Li- 

 brary. This ignorant fanatic devoted to the flames the in- 

 tellectual treasure accuujulated by the taste, the learning, 

 and the munificence of many kings ; observing, that the 

 books, if they agreed with the Koran, were superfluous, and 

 need not be preserved ; if they differed from it, impious, and 

 ought to be destroyed. 



If this extraordinary kind of exclusion vv^ere realized, what 

 would be the result ? A great national idol must be set up ; 

 and we should be compelled to bow down and worship it, 



