I could wish our Royal Society would compile a Body
of Natural History, the best that could be gather’d
together from Books and Observations. If the
several Writers among them took each his particular
Species, and gave us a distinct Account of its Original,
Birth and Education; its Policies, Hostilities and
Alliances, with the Frame and Texture of its inward
and outward Parts, and particularly those that distinguish
it from all other Animals, with their peculiar Aptitudes
for the State of Being in which Providence has placed
them, it would be one of the best Services their Studies
could do Mankind, and not a little redound to the
Glory of the All-wise Contriver.
It is true, such a Natural History, after all the
Disquisitions of the Learned, would be infinitely
Short and Defective. Seas and Desarts hide Millions
of Animals from our Observation. Innumerable Artifices
and Stratagems are acted in the Howling Wilderness
and in the Great Deep, that can never come
to our Knowledge. Besides that there are infinitely
more Species of Creatures which are not to be seen
without, nor indeed with the help of the finest Glasses,
than of such as are bulky enough for the naked Eye
to take hold of. However from the Consideration
of such Animals as lie within the Compass of our Knowledge,
we might easily form a Conclusion of the rest, that
the same Variety of Wisdom and Goodness runs through
the whole Creation, and puts every Creature in a Condition
to provide for its Safety and Subsistence in its proper
Station.
Tully has given us an admirable Sketch of Natural
History, in his second Book concerning the Nature
of the Gods; and then in a Stile so raised by Metaphors
and Descriptions, that it lifts the Subject above
Raillery and Ridicule, which frequently fall on such
nice Observations when they pass through the Hands
of an ordinary Writer.
L.
[Footnote 1: ‘Bayle’s Dictionary’,
here quoted, first appeared in English in 1710.
Pierre Bayle himself had first produced it in two folio
vols. in 1695-6, and was engaged in controversies caused
by it until his death in 1706, at the age of 59.
He was born at Carlat, educated at the universities
of Puylaurens and Toulouse, was professor of Philosophy
successively at Sedan and Rotterdam till 1693, when
he was deprived for scepticism. He is said to
have worked fourteen hours a day for 40 years, and
has been called ‘the Shakespeare of Dictionary
Makers.’]
[Footnote 2: Captain William Dampier’s
‘Voyages round the World’ appeared in
3 vols., 1697-1709. The quotation is from vol.
i. p. 39 (Ed. 1699, the Fourth). Dampier was
born in 1652, and died about 1712.]
[Footnote 3: ‘Essay on Human Understanding’,
Bk. II. ch. 9, Sec. 13.]
[Footnote 4: ‘Antidote against Atheism’,
Bk. II. ch. 10, Sec. 5.]
[Footnote 5: ‘Disquisition about the Final
Causes of Natural Things’, Sect. 2.]
