I* LECTURE I. 



ages of darkness ? A certain methodical arrange- 

 ment is indeed absolutely necessary in the science 

 of natural history j but it is by no means necessary 

 to obscure an easy and elegant study by the intro- 

 duction of innumerable harsh and ill-constructed 

 technical terms, and to sacrifice every grace and 

 elegance of language to the desire of torturing 

 Greek into bad French, and to substitute unin- 

 telligible awkwardness for elegant explanation. 

 It is certain, continues this author, that neither 

 Arnoldus de Villa Nova, nor Raymond Lully, or 

 any other among the old masters of the study of 

 Alchemy, ever introduced a diction more bar- 

 barous, or terms more repulsive, than some of our 

 modern managers of systematic Natural History. 

 I give this quotation as a proof of the ridicule 

 to which the spirit of minute arrangement, so 

 much admired among the lower order of natural- 

 ists, has of late unthinkingly exposed itself. I 

 hope, however, that the author had no intention 

 of glancing at the celebrated Monsieur Cuvier, 

 whose arrangement of the animal kingdom, not- 

 withstanding the unnecessary minuteness of some 

 of his divisions, must be allowed to possess a very 



