LINN^US AND NATURAL HISTORY m 



accounts of animals mentioned in the Bible and others of a 

 purely mythical character. These are made to be symbolical 

 of religious beliefs, and are often accompanied by quotations 

 of texts and by moral reflections. The phoenix rising from 

 its ashes typifies the resurrection of Christ. In reference to 

 young lions, the Physiologus says: ''The lioness givcth birth 

 to cubs which remain three days without life. Then cometh 

 the lion, breatheth upon them, and bringeth them to life. . . . 

 Thus it is that Jesus Christ during three days was deprived 

 of life, but God the Father raised him gloriously." (Quoted 

 from White, p. 35.) Besides forty or fifty common animals, 

 the unicorn and the dragon of the Scriptures, and the fabled 

 basilisk and phcenix of secular writings are described, and 

 morals are drawn from, the stories about them. Some of the 

 accounts of animals, as the lion, the panther, the serpent, the 

 weasel, etc., etc., are so curious that, if space permitted, it 

 w^ould be interesting to quote them ; but that would keep us 

 too long from following the rise of scientific natural histor}r 

 from this basis. 



For a long time the religious character of the contempla- 

 tions of nature was emphasized and the prevalence of theo- 

 logical influence in natural history is shown in various titles, 

 as Lesser's Theology oj Insects, Swammerdam's BibliOr 

 NaturcB, Spallanzani's Tracts, etc. 



The zoology of the Physiologus was of a much lower grade 

 than any w^e know about among the ancients, and it is a 

 curious fact that progress was made by returning to the 

 natural history of fifteen centuries in the past. The transla- 

 tion of Aristotle's writings upon animals, and the disposition 

 to read them, mark this advance. When, in the Middle 

 Ages, the boundaries of interest began to be extended, it 

 came like an entirely new discovery, to find in the writings 

 of the ancients a storehouse of philosophic thought and a 

 higher grade of learning than that of the |)criod. The 



