RISE AND PROGRESS OF ZOOLOGY. XVII 



we shall speak a little more at large on this 

 subject. 



It is singular that Zoology, though so de- 

 cidedly the most interesting and important 

 branch of Natural History, should so long 

 have remained uncultivated as a science. That 

 the animal world must have very early at- 

 tracted the attention of mankind, is obvious. 

 The close and important relations subsisting 

 between them and other animals, render this 

 point indubitable. Man cast naked and hungry 

 on the earth, and comparatively weak in phy- 

 sical powers, was forced not only to examine 

 the properties of plants, but likewise to ob- 

 serve narrowly the instincts and habits of the 

 brute creation. By such observations, he was 

 led to recognise those substances which were 

 necessary and salutary to his existence, and to 

 distinguish them from what might prove fatal 

 or pernicious. He was forced to resist the car- 

 nivorous tribes, and to elude the attacks of vene- 

 mous reptiles ; to seek his clothing and his food 

 by hunting and by fishing, and to tame and 

 associate with him, such animals as were suffi- 

 ciently docile and intelligent to assist him in 

 his pursuits. 



Such, doubtless, was the origin and founda- 

 tion of zoological science. That it was culti- 



