INTRODUCTION. Xi 
a mere sentiment of curiosity became speedily a love of 
science ; known objects were examined with more minute 
attention ; and whatever was rare or novel was no longer 
regarded with a stupid stare of astonishment and an 
exaggerated expression of wonder, but became the object 
of careful investigation and philosophic meditation. Such 
was the state of things in civilized Greece when the 
Macedonian conqueror carried his victorious arms to the 
banks of the Indus, and penetrated into countries, not 
altogether unknown to Europeans, but the natural pro- 
ductions of which were almost entirely new to the philo- 
sophers of the West. With the true spirit of a man of , 
genius, whose sagacity nothing could escape, and whose 
views of policy were as profound as the success of his 
arms was splendid, Alexander omitted no opportunity 
of proving his devotion to the cause of science; and the 
extensive collections of rare and unknown animals which 
he transmitted to his old tutor and friend, in other 
words the Menagerie which he formed, laid the founda- 
tion of the greatest, the most extensive, and the most 
original work on zoology that has ever been given to the 
world. The first of moral philosophers did not disdain 
to become the historian of the brute creation, and Aris- 
totle’s History of Animals remains a splendid and 
imperishable record of his qualifications for the task. 
Very different were the feelings by which the Roman 
generals and people were swayed even in their most 
civilized times and at the height of their unequalled 
power. Through all the gloss which history has thrown 
over the character of these masters of the universe there 
appears a spirit of unreclaimed barbarity which was 
never entirely shaken off. From the scenes of their 
distant conquests their pretors sent to the metropolis 
b 
