448 HISTORY or 



in hoofs, or claws, and then examinitij^ the particular description, 

 we shall be able to discover not only its name, but its history. I 

 have already said, that all methods of this kind are merely arbitrary, 

 and that Nature makes no exact distinction between her produc- 

 tions. It is hard, for instance, to tell whether we ought to refer 

 the civet to the dog or the cat kind ; but, if we know the exact his- 

 tory of the civet, it is no great matter to which kind we shall 

 judge it to bear the greatest resemblance. It is enough, that a 

 distribution of this kind excites in us some rude outlines of the 

 make, or some marked similitudes in the nature of these animals ; 

 but to know them with any precision, no system, or even de- 

 scription, will sen'e, since the animal itself, or a good print of it, 

 must be seen, and its history be read at length, before it can be 

 said to be known. To pretend to say that we have an idea of 

 a quadruped, because we can tell the number or the make of its 

 teeth, or its jjaps, is as absurd as if we should pretend to distin- 

 guish men by the buttons of their clothes. Indeed it often hap- 

 pens that the quadruped itself can be but seldom seen •, that 

 many of the more rare kinds do not come into Europe above 

 once in an age, and some of them have never been able to bear the 

 removal : in such a case, therefore, there is no other substitute 

 but a good print of the animal, to give an idea of its figure ; for 

 no description whatsoever can answer this purpose so well. Rlr 

 Loctke, with his usual good sense, has observed, that a drawing 

 of the animal, taken from the life, is one of the best methods of 

 advancing natural history ; and yet most of our modem system- 

 atic writers are content rather with describing. Descriptions, 

 no doubt, will go some way towards giving an idea of the figure 

 of an animal ; but they are certainly much the longest way about, 

 and, as they are usually managed, much the most obscure. In a 

 drawing we can, at a single glance, gather more instruction 

 than by a day's painful investigation of methodical systems, 

 where we are told the proportions with great exactness, and yet 

 remain ignorant of the totality. In fact, this method of describing 

 all things is a fault that has infected many of our books, that 

 treat on the meaner arts, for this last age. They attempt to 

 teach by words, what is only to be learnt by practice and inspec- 

 tion. Most of our dictionaries, and bodies of arts and sciences, 

 are guilty of this error. Suppose, for instance, it be requisite to 

 mention the manner of making shoes, it is plain that all the ver. 



