INTRODUCTION. 



THE early history of science informs us of peculiar acquirements by which 

 nations distinguished themselves from the rest of the world. Thus we are 

 told of the skill of the Egyptians in astronomy, to which they were peculiarly 

 led by their manner of reposing on open terraces under a cloudless sky. We 

 learn also from the Old Testament, which if it were merely a human work 

 would be the most venerable monument in the world, that Natural History 

 was very early one of the sciences in the highest estimation. The manner 

 in which Solomon's botanical knowledge is mentioned in the Bible, proves 

 that to have been in those days the most esteemed, perhaps, of all learning 

 whatever. Moses, moreover, appears to have possessed more than an 

 ordinary knowledge of insects, if we suppose, as the ingenious remarks of 

 Professor Lichtenstein render probable, that he distinguishes as clean insects 

 the Pabrician genera Gryllus, Locusta, Trust alis, and Acheta, which a person 

 unobservant of these insects would have confounded together. Allusion is 

 oftentimes made in Holy Writ to insects of almost every one of the modern 

 orders, — the locust, bee, moth, fly, lice, &c. • but not once to butterflies. 

 The Prophets frequently introduce them as symbols of enemies that lay waste 

 or oppress the church ; and Solomon did not deem insects, those " Little 

 things upon the earth/' unworthy of his attention. He even advised the 

 sluggard to go to the ant, to consider her ways, and be wise. 



With Aristotle, however, begins the real history of science; and how much 

 soever he may have erred on particular points, the greatness of his conceptions 

 and the justness of his ideas on the whole, entitle him to our high veneration. 

 His labours in the investigation of the animal kingdom have laid the founda- 

 tion of the knowledge we now possess, and it cannot sufficiently be regretted 

 that we have only an imperfect account of his discoveries. Thcophrastus, 

 the worthy disciple of Aristotle, has given us the first scientific views of the 



