20 
MEMOIR OF 
of creatures, we should no doubt find in their 
names, when primitive and original, very descrip- 
tive and apt epithets.” 
In the account of the creation by Moses, there 
is an orderly arrangement of the objects of 
Natural History, perfectly simple, yet strikingly 
systematic, rising from inert matter, through 
vegetation and animal life, up to intellectual 
being ; of these severally, it is said, that they 
were each made “ after its own kind” or species. 
It may be permitted here to insert the 
zoological classification of the ancient Jews, in a 
systematic form, taken from the interesting 
work to which obligations have been already 
acknowledged. 
The system of Moses, derived from the first 
chapter of Genesis, verses 20, 21, 24, 25, &c. 
It is disposed in triads. 1. Earth ; 2. Air ; 
3. Water. 
1. Earth. 
1. Desha , translated “grass,” including small 
herbs of every order. 
2* Osheb, “ the herb yielding seed,” including 
all larger plants, whose seeds are conspi- 
cuous, rising higher than the grass, having 
stalks, not ligneous, of annual growth. 
3. Otz, or tree, including shrubs and large trees 
of every description and species ; Peren- 
nials, “ fruit bearing, whose seed is in them,” 
that is, in the fruit, whether the fruit or nut 
be proper for the use of animals or not. 
