OF INSECTS IN GENERAL. 3I9 
his obfervations are founded. It confifb of a long and 
tedious enumeration of animals, whofe appearance and 
hiftory correfpond in certain particulars ; followed by 
another of thofe which differ from the former. Enume- 
rations of this kind are l'eldom complete, and long before 
they can become fo, muft prove a burden too great for 
the memory to retain*. The hiflories of Pliny and 
JElian are formed upon tire fame plan, and are liable to 
fimilar defeats : They confift of a number of obfervations 
ill arranged, and infufficiently authenticated. 
During that long fucceflion of ages, which was only 
diftinguilhed by ignorance and barbarifm, entymology 
lhared the fame fate with every other fcience : It was 
condemned to oblivion. After a tafte for literature had 
begun to revive, the hi dory of infe&s again attra&ed the 
notice of the curious ; unhappily, however, for the 
growth of fcience, men were then devoted to the ftudy 
of the ancients with a blind admiration : It was from 
their writings that they imagined the moderns were to' 
derive a complete knowledge of all the ferrets of nature; 
and Jrijlotlc was principally confulted for the hiftory of 
animals. Had JUrovandus, Gefncr, and Mouffet, be- 
llowed the fame attention in ftudying the works of na. 
ture that they employed upon the writings of that natu- 
ralilt, they would have made a much greater progrefs in 
real knowledge: But they unfortunately obferved na- 
ture only to obferve there what they had read from 
Ariftotle. This exceflive predile&ion for antiquity ought 
not indeed fo much to be imputed to thefe authors as to the 
age in which they lived ; a period when every thing was 
deemed 
* Vide Hift. animal, paflim. 
