[ 2 95 ] 
As for the ancient Greeks and Romans, their 
drefs prevented their- being fo much in the fields as 
we are ; or, if they heard of a rather extraordinary bird 
in their neighbourhood, they had not a gun to fhootr 
it : the only method of attaining real knowledge 
in natural hiflory, depends almoft entirely upon 
the having frequent opportunities of thus killing ani- 
mals, and examining them when dead. 
If they did not ftir much in their own 
country, much lefs did they think of travelling 
into diftant regions ; want of bills of exchange, and 
of that curiofity which arifes from our being 
thoroughly acquainted with what is near us at home, 
probably occafioned this j to which may alfo be 
added, the want of a variety of languages : fcarcely 
any Greek feerns to have known more than his own 
tongue, nor Roman more than two *. 
Ariftotle, indeed, began fomething like a fyftem 
of natural hiftory, and Pliny put down, in his com- 
mon place-book, many an idle ftory ; but, before 
the invention of printing, copies of their works 
could not be fo generally difperled, as to occafion 
much attention to what might be interelling fafts for 
the natural hiftorian. 
In the fixteenth century, Gefner, Belon, and 
Aldrovandus, published fome materials, which might 
be of ufe to future naturalifts ; but, in the feven- 
teenth, Ray and Willoughy firfi: treated this exten- 
live branch of ftudy, with that clearnefs of method, 
*■ It need be fcarcely here mentioned alfo, that their navigation 
was confined to the Mediteranean, from the compafs not having 
been then difcovered. 
perfpicuity 
