2 INTRODUCTION TO 



globe and got him a wife; he was also afraid of being killed by 

 strangers on being turned out. 



The same history brings us much nearer, viz. the Flood ; where it is 

 positively asserted that every living tiling was drowned, except seven of 

 each species that were clean and two of every sort that was unclean*. 

 And likewise that there were but one man, his wife and offspring 

 saved. Later historians have thrown but little light upon this subject, 

 and many have only endeavoured to make the present appearances clash 

 with the account given in the Old Testament. 



Man is born or comes into the world ignorant ; but he is furnished 

 with the senses, so as to be impressed with the properties of things ; by 

 which means he gradually, of himself, acquires a degree of knowledge. 

 But Man goes farther, he has the poAver of receiving information of 

 things that never impressed his senses : and, if he has that power, it is 

 natural to suppose that one Man has the power of communicating his 

 knowledge of things to another, each giving and receiving reciprocally ; 

 which we find to be the case. 



And it must also follow, in a connected series, that the mind is 

 capable of connecting signs or types of things with the things them- 

 selves, so as to form in the mind a something similar to an impression 

 on the sense to which the sign or type refers, called an ' idea.' If this 

 was not the case, knowledge would never increase. 



This of signs, although natural in themselves, yet are arbitrary in 

 their modes, therefore varies ' : by which means, knowledge is in some 

 degree preserved, and by which means it increases ; which leads the 

 mind on further and further ; and which, as it were, leads the mind 

 into the study of natural things. Therefore, the study of Natural 

 History is an effect of considerable advancement in civilization and in 

 the cultivation and improvement of natural things ; and, therefore, the 

 study is posterior to those advancements. 



Men, at first, hardly considering those things which were the cause 

 of their sensations, therefore were guided by instinctive principles, and 

 a kind of habit arising out of practice ; for civilization, cultivation, and 

 improvement took place at first by slow and almost imperceptible 



* The idea affixed to clean and unclean were those that were eatable and those 

 that were not eatable. 



1 [The following is an attempt to make the meaning clearer in the above charac- 

 teristic example of Hunter's occasional obscurity : — 



"This [subject or system] of signs, [which signs] although natural in themselves, 

 yet are arbitrary in their modes, therefore varies." Although why an unvarying 

 (system of spoken or written) signs of ideas, might not have served as well as a varying 

 one. for the preservation and transmission of knowledge, is not very apparent]. 



