INTRODUCTORY ESSAY. xvii 



them weeping, and they have no tongue". "The griffin of Bactria 

 hath a body greater than eight lyons and stall worthier than a 

 hundred egles, for certainly he will beare to his nest flying, a horse 

 and a man upon his back." He was not readily daunted, Sir John, 

 for when they told him of the lamb-tree which bears lambs in its 

 pods, his British pluck did not desert him, and he gave answer that 

 he " held it for no marvayle, for in his country are trees which bear 

 fruit which become birds flying, and they are good to eate, and that 

 that falleth on the water, liveth, and that that falleth on earth, 

 dyeth; and they mar vailed much thereat ". The tale of the barnacle- 

 tree was a trump card in those days! 



Another example of this type, but rising distinctly above it in 

 trustworthiness, was the Venetian Marco Polo, who in the thir- 

 teenth century explored Asia from the Black Sea to Pekin, 

 from the Altai to Sumatra, and doubtless saw much, though not 

 quite so much as he describes. He will correct the fables of his 

 predecessors, he tells us, demonstrating gravely that the unicorn 

 or rhinoceros does not allow himself to be captured by a gentle 

 maiden, but he proceeds to describe tailed men, yea, headless men, 

 without, so far as can be seen, any touch of sarcasm. Of how many 

 marvels, from porcupines throwing off their spines and snakes with 

 clawed fore-feet, to the great Rukh, which could bear not merely 

 a poor Sinbad but an elephant through the air, is it not written in 

 the books of Ser Marco Polo of Venezia? 



II. THE ENCYCLOPAEDIST TYPE. This unwieldy title, suggestive 

 of an omnivorous hunger for knowledge, is conveniently, as well as 

 technically, descriptive of a type of naturalist characteristic of the 

 early years of the scientific renaissance. Edward Wotton (d. 1555), 

 the Swiss Gesner (d. 1565), the Italian Aldrovandi (d. 1605), the 

 Scotsman Johnson (d. 1675), are good examples. These encyclo- 

 pedists were at least impressed with the necessity of getting close 

 to the facts of nature, of observing for themselves, and we cannot 

 blame them much if their critical faculties were dulled by the 

 strength of their enthusiasm. They could not all at once forget 

 the mediaeval dreams, nor did they make any strenuous effort to 

 rationalize the materials which they so industriously gathered. 



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