124 JOHN SWAMMERDAM. 



as they studied the ancient writers, the assiduous la- 

 bour of so many active minds would have secured for 

 that science a more sure and rapid progress. The ma- 

 terial world was then observed only for the purpose of 

 confirming the reports made by the authors of anti- 

 quity. At length Nature opened the eyes of those 

 who were trying to see in her only what they had 

 seen in Aristotle and Pliny. She disclosed to them 

 facts worthy of being noticed, which they vainly 

 sought in the books which they imagined to contain 

 every thing ; and unfolded others, which gave them 

 reason to doubt the truth of those that had been 

 transmitted from former ages. After having thrown 

 oif the fetters of authority, farther, perhaps, than 

 was quite consistent with the respect that was really 

 due to the ancients, men perceived that they ought 

 to study facts, verify whatever had been related, and 

 try to discover more. It was thus that Malpighi, 

 Swammerdam, Redi, and other illustrious authors 

 proceeded. Even those, such as Goedart and Ma- 

 dame Merian, who^ from an ignorance in some de- 

 gree fortunate, were unable to read the ancients, 

 laboured with advantage as observers.* 



The subject of this memoir was born at Am- 

 sterdam on the 12th February 1637. His father, 

 an apothecary, was fond of natural history, and, 

 being in prosperous circumstances, embellished his 

 house with preserved animals, shells, and minerals, 

 insomuch that it became an object of attraction to 

 the curious. Young Swammerdam was intended 

 for the church, and received instructions in the 

 Greek and Latin languages, to qualify him for 

 the study of divinity ; but, on seriously consider- 



* Reaumur, Histoire des Insectes, tome i. p. 28. 



