xX INTRODUCTION. 
to man, or their supposed qualities and influence, but 
were also looked upon as sacred to one or other of the 
interminable catalogue of divinities, to whose service 
they were devoted, and on whose altars they were sacri- 
ficed. For these also Menageries must have been con- 
structed, in which not only their physical peculiarities 
but even their moral qualities must have been to a 
certain extent studied; although the passions and pre- 
judices of the multitude would naturally corrupt the 
sources of information thus opened to them, by the 
intermixture of exaggerated perversions of ill observed 
facts and by the addition of altogether imaginary fables. 
If to these two kinds of Menageries we add that which 
has every where and under all circumstances accom- 
panied the first dawn of civilization, and which consti- 
tutes the distinguishing characteristic of man emerging 
from a state of barbarism and entering upon a new and 
social state of existence, the possession of flocks and 
herds, of animals useful in his domestic economy, ser- 
viceable in the chase, and capable of sharing in his 
daily toils, a tolerable idea may be formed of the collec- 
tions which were brought together in the earliest ages, 
and were more or less the subjects of study to a race of 
men who were careless of every thing that had no imme- 
diate bearing upon their feelings, their passions, or their 
interests. 
But as civilization advanced, and the progress of 
society favoured the developement of mind, when those 
who were no longer compelled by necessity to labour 
for their daily bread found leisure to look abroad with 
expanded views upon the wonders of the creation, the 
animal kingdom presented new attractions and awakened 
ideas which had before lain dormant. What was at first 
