64 THE AUSTRALIAN NATURALIST. 
every Greek who could get a Pericles to defend him, and 
even under these special circumstances, it was a dangerous - 
practice in which to indulge. This fear persisted steadily 
down the ages,,and the hopelessly inadequate methods of 
* compiling and CesemD ng natural facts existed side by 
~ side with it. 
When we come down to Naturalists such as Pliny, we 
find them little more than transcribers and compilers. 
They narrate stories without testing their accuracy, and 
uever consult Nature to prove the truth of their state- 
ments. The more improbable the story the more ready are 
they to repeat and believe it. 
The advent of Christianity in the Western world, and 
the gradual discredit of my thology, brought in a new age, in ; 
which the Naturalist may almost be said to be forgot- 
ten. With the compilation of the Bible and its accept 
ance, subject, of course, to ecclesiastical interpretation as 
the final judgment upon all questions, the causes of the 
~ phenomena of nature were referred to these authorities, 
and for the poetic mythology of Greece was substituted a : 
harder, cruder explanation, with an equally strong sacerdo- i“ 
tal and ecclesiastical force behind it. The places of eternal _ | 
punishment and reward were based on the ecclesiastical oa 
conception of the earth’s place in the solar system, and the 
unfortunate fact was, that the discoveries of science al- 
ways came in conflict with this, or with some vther ac- 
cepted ecclesiastical idea. There was little induce- 
ment, for other reasons, to indulge in scientific investi- 
gation. The other-worldliness of the mediaeval age was 
entirely opposed to it. The world, the human body, and 
everything material, were considered to be an obstruction 
to self-realisation. Between these, a judicious administra- 
tion of the rack, and equally persuasive methods, there 
was little. inducement to seek a natural explanation of 
physical phenomena, or to give publicity to such discovy- a 
eries, since they conflicted with ecclesiastical opinion or 
the authorised interpretations of Holy Writ. Fear was 
always standing in the way ‘of the Naturalist, either the 
fear which arises from superstition or that which was 
based on authority. Ruskin was of opinion that Dante 
‘exhibits in his great comedy a fear of mountains, that 
there was a certain sanctity and terror associated with 
a ee oT 
