OT INSECTS IN GENERAt. 319 



hrs obfervations are founded. It coniifls of a long and 

 tedious enunieiation of animals, whofe appearance and 

 hiftory correfpond in certain particulars ; followed by 

 another of thofe which differ from the former. Enume- 

 rations of this kind are feldom complete, and long before 

 they can become fo, mufl prove a burden too great for 

 the memory to retain*. The hiflories of Pliny and 

 ILl'ian are formed upon the fame plan, and are liable to 

 fimllar defefts: They confift of a number of obfervations 

 ill arranged, and infufficiently authenticated. 



During that long fucceffion of ages, which was only 

 diftinguifhed by ignorance and barbarifm, entymology 

 fiiared the fame fate with every other fcience : It was 

 condemned to oblivion. After a tafte for literature had 

 begun to revive, the hiflory of infeils again attra£led the 

 notice of the curious j unhappily, however, for the 

 growth of fcience, men were then devoted to the ftudy 

 of the ancients with a blind admiration : It was from 

 their writings that they imagined the moderns were to 

 derive a complete knowledge of all the fecrets of nature ; 

 and j^ynjiotle was principally confiiilted for the hiftory of 

 animals. Had Aldrcroandus^ Gefner^ and Mouffet, be- 

 llowed the fame attention in ftudying the works of na- 

 ture that they employed upon the writings of that natu- 

 ralifl, they would have made a much greater progrefs in 

 real knowledge : But they unfortunately obferved na- 

 ture only to obferve there what they had read from 

 Ariftotle. This exceffive predile£lion for antiquity oughiH 

 not indeed fo much to be imputed to thefe authors as to the 

 oge in which they lived ; a period when every thing Was 



deemed 



* Vide Hift. animal- pafSm. 



