A Preliminary Discourse on the Study of Natural History |
Other editions - View all
Common terms and phrases
acquired admiration admitted affinity already analogy animals appear Aristotle belong birds Britain celebrated characters circumstances collection comparative anatomy conchology considered Cuvier descriptions discover discoveries distinctions divisions economy effect enquire entomology essential exist external fact feelings folio genera generalisation genus habits honours illustrated induction Insectorum insects instance institutions interest investigation knowledge known labours laws learning Lepidoptera less Linnæan Linnæus look matter ment merit mind mode Moses Harris museum natural arrangement natural group natural history naturalist objects observation opinion ornithology Pachydermata particular peculiar pecuniary perfect perfect groups philosophic physical sciences plates possess present principles prosecution Prussia published pursuits quadrupeds question rank reason regard result Royal Society scientific Sir James Smith species structure sub-genera supposed talents Temminck theory things tion trace truth universal vols volumes Willughby writers zoologist zoology
Popular passages
Page 427 - I returned, and saw under the sun, that the race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong, neither yet bread to the wise, nor yet riches to men of understanding, nor yet favour to men of skill; but time and chance happeneth to them all.
Page i - THIS BOOK. FORMS PART OF THE ORIGINAL LIBRARY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN BOUGHT IN EUROPE 1838 TO 1839 BY ASA CRAY a, >^ ^f-, LITERARY REMAINS OF TUB LATE WILLIAM HAZLITT.
Page 140 - The privy council sat day after day anxiously debating what measures should be adopted to ward off the danger of a calamity more to be dreaded, as they well knew, than the plague or pestilence. Expresses were sent off in all directions to the officers of the customs at the different outports respecting the examination of cargoes — despatches...
Page 422 - Almighty has chosen to make known the laws and mysteries of his works, — he who has devoted his life, and sacrificed his health and the interests of his family, in the most profound and ennobling pursuits, is allowed to live in poverty and obscurity, and to sink into the grave without one mark of the affection and gratitude of his country.
Page 94 - And Adam gave names to all cattle, and to the fowls of the air, and to every beast of the field; but for Adam there was not found an helpmeet for him.
Page 6 - History," in which he first sought to define, by the precision of language, those more prominent and comprehensive groups of the animal kingdom, which, being founded in Nature, are exempt from the influence of time and the mutability of learning. Had this extraordinary man left us no other memorial of his talents than his researches in zoology, he would still be looked upon as one of the greatest philosophers of ancient Greece, even in its highest and brightest age. His eloquence and depth of thought...
Page 140 - ... written to the ambassadors in France, Austria, Prussia, and America, to gain that information of the want of which they were now so sensible : and so important was the business deemed, that the minutes of council and the documents collected from all quarters fill upwards of two hundred octavo pages b.
Page 140 - Arts, to whom the privy council had the wisdom to apply; and it was by Sir Joseph Banks's entomological knowledge, and through his suggestions, that they were at length enabled to form some kind of judgment on the subject. This judgment was, after all, however, very imperfect. As Sir Joseph Banks had never seen the Hessian fly, nor was it described in any entomological system, he called for facts respecting its nature, propagation, and economy, which could be had only from America. These were obtained...
Page 10 - Ortus sanitatis. De herbis et plantis; de animalibus et reptilibus; de avibus et volatilibus; de piscibus et natatilibus; de lapidibus et in terre venis nascentibus; de urinis et earum speciebus.
Page 24 - It contains his general system, or synopsis, of conchology, and is enriched with no less than 1059 plates or figures of shells ; among which several represent, with great accuracy, the internal structure of the animals themselves : most of these figures are so accurate, and all are so characteristic, that even to this day they are indispensable to the conchologist, and this remarkable volume forms one of the most valuable and standard works in this department of zoology...