2 WILD ANIMALS. 



the objects of terror the wild beasts of the earth became the 

 objects of curiosity ; ultimately, no doubt, their character and 

 habits becoming better known, their study was the subject of 

 closer and closer investigation. Thus natural history became a 

 science and obtained its first votaries — students who went to 

 nature for their teaching, and whose works, although primitive 

 and fabulous in the extreme, nevertheless became the foundation 

 of those vast storehouses of knowledge which are the heritage of 

 the present enlightened age. Mr. Bennett says in his short but 

 graphic description of this subject : — " What was at first 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 subject 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 bank of the Indus, and penetrated into countries not 

 altogether unknown to Europeans, but the natural productions of 

 which were almost entirely new to the philosophers 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 oppor- 

 tunity of proving his devotion to the cause of science, and the 

 extensive collection of rare and unknown animals which he 

 transmitted to his old tutor and friend — in other words, the 

 menagerie which he formed— laid the foundation 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 Aristotle's ' History of Animals ' remains a splendid and 

 imperishable record of his qualifications for the task." 



It was otherwise in Eome. Pliny's "Natural History" has 

 but little zoological value. Any that it may possess was derived 

 from consulting the small collections of rare and curious animals 

 that were made by a few private individuals during the reign of 

 the later Opesars, His writings contain but little original infor- 



