I46 TRAVELS IN UPPER 



all to study the manners, the modes of life; to bring 

 to the observation of nature neither prejudice, nor 

 the spirit of system; to see things as they are, and 

 not as we would have them to be; such is the cha- 

 racter of the real naturalist, whereas that of the 

 vocabulary-compiler is to confound every thing. 

 The jerbo furnishes us with an example of this 

 confusion in the science of nature ; certain resem- 

 blances, each taken separately, have suggested com- 

 parisons between it and the hare, the rabbit, the 

 rat, the field-mouse, &c. though they so evidently 

 differ from each other that any man without the 

 slightest knowledge of natural history, provided 

 he possessed a sound understanding, would readily 

 distinguish them. Nevertheless these very im- 

 proper denominations of hare, rabbit, rat, field- 

 mouse, &c. have been indiscriminately applied to 

 the jerbo, by naturalists and ill-informed travel- 

 lers; and it is worthy of remark, that erudition 

 without genius, sometimes produces the same 

 effects that ignorance does. 



It is in the burning climates of Africa, princi- 

 pally, that Nature seems to have taken pleasure in 

 varying, in a manner altogether singular, the forms 

 of the beings which she has placed there, and in 

 deviating from the rules and the proportions which 

 she seemed to have adopted, if, however, that can 

 be called a deviation, which is a proof of her bound- 

 less and inexhaustible fecundity. On that fiery soil 



it 



