iz8 NATURAL SCIENCES. 



Thevet and Pierre Grilles ; with the leading naturalists, such as Eondelet, 

 Belon, and Aldrovandus ; with the greatest botanists, such as Dalechamp, 

 Maranda, Adam Lonicer, and Rainbert Dodoens, surnamed Dodonajus. The 

 books of Gesner may, therefore, be looked upon as the store in which were 

 deposited all the facts and discoveries in natural history during his day. 



Gesner's works show that at this period science, notwithstanding the want 

 of classification which militated against an harmonious and complete con- 

 ception of the work of nature, had reached a very advanced stage. All 

 that remained was to submit the mass of information to a philosophic and 

 methodical classification. Thus, in that part of his great work which Gesner 

 published himself, after ranging the animals alphabetically, with their Latin 

 names followed by those used in different languages, he describes them 

 minutely, indicating their origin, their varieties, their habits, their diseases, 

 their utility in domestic economy, industry, medicine, and arts, and quoting, 

 in reference to each, the different passages which he had extracted from 

 ancient and modern authors. Belon, although less erudite than Gesner, 

 attempted to class the birds according to their instinctive habits, and in some 

 cases according to their external appearance ; but he had no settled system, 

 and his most ingenious suggestions failed to bring to his knowledge the 

 unvarying order of natural laws in the formation of species. Rondelet went 

 even further than Gesner and Belon, as he attempted to ascertain by com- 

 parative anatomy the analogies and differences of species, but he did not 

 succeed in establishing a general and systematic plan in zoology. Botany 

 was much further advanced than the other branches of natural history, for 

 Gesner not only discovered the elements for the classification of plants, but 

 the conscientious researches of a number of excellent botanists advanced 

 further and further the frontiers of a science which embraced the whole 

 vegetable world. Though henceforward the method of observation was the 

 only one admitted in scientific matters, the books of the ancient naturalists 

 were translated and commentated, and Aristotle, Theophrastus, Dioscorides, 

 and Pliny recovered full authority. 



There was, however, a man of genius who, knowing nothing of Greek or 

 Latin, and devoid of all regular education, discovered the fundamental bases 

 of nature, which were only recognised three centuries later, and who, as far 

 back as the sixteenth century, established the principles upon which repose 

 geology, physics, and natural history. This was a humble labourer in 



