INTRODUCTION: NATURAL HISTORY DOWN 

 TO THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY 



The beginnings of natural history are wholly unknown 

 to us. In a very remote past men made themselves 

 acquainted with some of the properties of plants and 

 with some of the habits of common animals, learned to 

 distinguish a few of the more conspicuous kinds, and 

 gave names to such as seemed to them important or 

 curious. The most interesting to us of these early 

 inquiries were made before the Christian era in Greece ; 

 similar investigations were no doubt pursued in Egypt, 

 India and other eastern countries, whose history is less 

 accessible. 



The beautiful land of Greece, intersected and indented 

 in many places by the sea, rising into lofty mountains, 

 enjoying a climate propitious to labour, well furnished 

 with small harbours, and having ready access to all 

 Mediterranean ports ; more than all the rest, inhabited 

 by a people of singular enterprise, was upwards of two 

 thousand years ago the cradle of the sciences. Neither 

 Asia nor Africa has done so much for the scientific 

 education of the world as the little country of Greece. 

 The heavenly bodies, the seasons, the winds, the life of 

 animals and plants were there observed with eager 

 curiosity. Ploughmen, gardeners, vine-growers, wood- 



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