26 
MEMOIR OE 
The same system is recognized by Jewish 
writers, of widely different times.* 
Now, though it be demurred, that this system 
was derived from inspired direction, and, therefore, 
ought not to be mentioned in an historical sketch 
of Natural History, in which regard is supposed 
to be had only to the results attained by the 
unassisted faculties of man ; and though it be 
objected, that it owed its origin to the require- 
ments of a ceremonial religion, or to the design 
of preserving the Jews distinct from every other 
nation, and especially from the Egyptians, and 
not impossibly, also, of serving, at the same 
time, the farther purpose, not unworthy of divine 
care, of a guide in the choice of viands most 
favourable to health and virtue ; yet it must be 
confessed worthy of more notice than has some- 
times been paid to it, both as truly meriting the 
name of a system, and as unquestionably being 
the most ancient specimen of the kind now 
known to be extant. 
Respecting one part of it, Michaelis, in his 
Commentary on the Laws of Moses, observes, f 
“ That in so early an age of the world we should 
find a systematic division of quadrupeds so ex- 
cellent as never yet, after all the improvements 
in Natural History, to have become obsolete, 
but, on the contrary, to be still considered as 
* Genesis, vi. vii. viii. ix. ; Kings, iv. 33. ; Psalm 
exlviii. ; Acts, x. .12. 
t Article CCIV. 
